by Mike Gray

The pledge is a patriotic exercise, and it is made no less so by the acknowledgment of Texas’s religious heritage via the inclusion of the phrase “under God.” A pledge can constitutionally acknowledge the existence of, and even value, a religious belief without impermissibly favoring that value or belief, without advancing belief over non-belief, and without coercing participation in a religious exercise. Texas’s pledge is of this sort and consequently survives this challenge. Accordingly, the district court’s judgment dismissing the complaint is affirmed.

— U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

Texas has been rather dilatory in including God in their pledge:

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled on October 13 that the words “under God” that appear in the Texas Pledge of Allegiance are constitutional.

The term was added to the state pledge in 2007. The same year, David Wallace Croft, along with a handful of other parents of school-age children, filed a lawsuit against Texas Governor Rick Perry to challenge the words’ constitutionality and to have them banned.

— Christine Dao, “‘Under God’ Stands in Texas Pledge,” full article at ICR