[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2690 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]

        S.2690

                      One Hundred Seventh Congress

                                 of the

                        United States of America


                          AT THE SECOND SESSION

         Begun and held at the City of Washington on Wednesday,
          the twenty-third day of January, two thousand and two


                                 An Act


 
   To reaffirm the reference to one Nation under God in the Pledge of 
                               Allegiance.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
        (1) On November 11, 1620, prior to embarking for the shores of 
    America, the Pilgrims signed the Mayflower Compact that declared: 
    ``Having undertaken, for the Glory of God and the advancement of 
    the Christian Faith and honor of our King and country, a voyage to 
    plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia,''.
        (2) On July 4, 1776, America's Founding Fathers, after 
    appealing to the ``Laws of Nature, and of Nature's God'' to justify 
    their separation from Great Britain, then declared: ``We hold these 
    Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that 
    they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, 
    that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness''.
        (3) In 1781, Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of 
    Independence and later the Nation's third President, in his work 
    titled ``Notes on the State of Virginia'' wrote: ``God who gave us 
    life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought 
    secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in 
    the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of 
    God. That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I 
    tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his 
    justice cannot sleep forever.''.
        (4) On May 14, 1787, George Washington, as President of the 
    Constitutional Convention, rose to admonish and exhort the 
    delegates and declared: ``If to please the people we offer what we 
    ourselves disapprove, how can we afterward defend our work? Let us 
    raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can repair; the 
    event is in the hand of God!''.
        (5) On July 21, 1789, on the same day that it approved the 
    Establishment Clause concerning religion, the First Congress of the 
    United States also passed the Northwest Ordinance, providing for a 
    territorial government for lands northwest of the Ohio River, which 
    declared: ``Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to 
    good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means 
    of education shall forever be encouraged.''.
        (6) On September 25, 1789, the First Congress unanimously 
    approved a resolution calling on President George Washington to 
    proclaim a National Day of Thanksgiving for the people of the 
    United States by declaring, ``a day of public thanksgiving and 
    prayer, to be observed by acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the 
    many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an 
    opportunity peaceably to establish a constitution of government for 
    their safety and happiness.''.
        (7) On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered 
    his Gettysburg Address on the site of the battle and declared: ``It 
    is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining 
    before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion 
    to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of 
    devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not 
    have died in vain--that this Nation, under God, shall have a new 
    birth of freedom--and that Government of the people, by the people, 
    for the people, shall not perish from the earth.''.
        (8) On April 28, 1952, in the decision of the Supreme Court of 
    the United States in Zorach v. Clauson, 343 U.S. 306 (1952), in 
    which school children were allowed to be excused from public 
    schools for religious observances and education, Justice William O. 
    Douglas, in writing for the Court stated: ``The First Amendment, 
    however, does not say that in every and all respects there shall be 
    a separation of Church and State. Rather, it studiously defines the 
    manner, the specific ways, in which there shall be no concern or 
    union or dependency one on the other. That is the common sense of 
    the matter. Otherwise the State and religion would be aliens to 
    each other--hostile, suspicious, and even unfriendly. Churches 
    could not be required to pay even property taxes. Municipalities 
    would not be permitted to render police or fire protection to 
    religious groups. Policemen who helped parishioners into their 
    places of worship would violate the Constitution. Prayers in our 
    legislative halls; the appeals to the Almighty in the messages of 
    the Chief Executive; the proclamations making Thanksgiving Day a 
    holiday; `so help me God' in our courtroom oaths--these and all 
    other references to the Almighty that run through our laws, our 
    public rituals, our ceremonies would be flouting the First 
    Amendment. A fastidious atheist or agnostic could even object to 
    the supplication with which the Court opens each session: `God save 
    the United States and this Honorable Court.'''.
        (9) On June 15, 1954, Congress passed and President Eisenhower 
    signed into law a statute that was clearly consistent with the text 
    and intent of the Constitution of the United States, that amended 
    the Pledge of Allegiance to read: ``I pledge allegiance to the Flag 
    of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it 
    stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice 
    for all.''.
        (10) On July 20, 1956, Congress proclaimed that the national 
    motto of the United States is ``In God We Trust'', and that motto 
    is inscribed above the main door of the Senate, behind the Chair of 
    the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and on the currency of 
    the United States.
        (11) On June 17, 1963, in the decision of the Supreme Court of 
    the United States in Abington School District v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 
    203 (1963), in which compulsory school prayer was held 
    unconstitutional, Justices Goldberg and Harlan, concurring in the 
    decision, stated: ``But untutored devotion to the concept of 
    neutrality can lead to invocation or approval of results which 
    partake not simply of that noninterference and noninvolvement with 
    the religious which the Constitution commands, but of a brooding 
    and pervasive devotion to the secular and a passive, or even 
    active, hostility to the religious. Such results are not only not 
    compelled by the Constitution, but, it seems to me, are prohibited 
    by it. Neither government nor this Court can or should ignore the 
    significance of the fact that a vast portion of our people believe 
    in and worship God and that many of our legal, political, and 
    personal values derive historically from religious teachings. 
    Government must inevitably take cognizance of the existence of 
    religion and, indeed, under certain circumstances the First 
    Amendment may require that it do so.''.
        (12) On March 5, 1984, in the decision of the Supreme Court of 
    the United States in Lynch v. Donelly, 465 U.S. 668 (1984), in 
    which a city government's display of a nativity scene was held to 
    be constitutional, Chief Justice Burger, writing for the Court, 
    stated: ``There is an unbroken history of official acknowledgment 
    by all three branches of government of the role of religion in 
    American life from at least 1789 . . . [E]xamples of reference to 
    our religious heritage are found in the statutorily prescribed 
    national motto `In God We Trust' (36 U.S.C. 186), which Congress 
    and the President mandated for our currency, see (31 U.S.C. 
    5112(d)(1) (1982 ed.)), and in the language `One Nation under God', 
    as part of the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag. That 
    pledge is recited by many thousands of public school children--and 
    adults--every year . . . Art galleries supported by public revenues 
    display religious paintings of the 15th and 16th centuries, 
    predominantly inspired by one religious faith. The National Gallery 
    in Washington, maintained with Government support, for example, has 
    long exhibited masterpieces with religious messages, notably the 
    Last Supper, and paintings depicting the Birth of Christ, the 
    Crucifixion, and the Resurrection, among many others with explicit 
    Christian themes and messages. The very chamber in which oral 
    arguments on this case were heard is decorated with a notable and 
    permanent--not seasonal--symbol of religion: Moses with the Ten 
    Commandments. Congress has long provided chapels in the Capitol for 
    religious worship and meditation.''.
        (13) On June 4, 1985, in the decision of the Supreme Court of 
    the United States in Wallace v. Jaffree, 472 U.S. 38 (1985), in 
    which a mandatory moment of silence to be used for meditation or 
    voluntary prayer was held unconstitutional, Justice O'Connor, 
    concurring in the judgment and addressing the contention that the 
    Court's holding would render the Pledge of Allegiance 
    unconstitutional because Congress amended it in 1954 to add the 
    words ``under God,'' stated ``In my view, the words `under God' in 
    the Pledge, as codified at (36 U.S.C. 172), serve as an 
    acknowledgment of religion with `the legitimate secular purposes of 
    solemnizing public occasions, [and] expressing confidence in the 
    future.'''.
        (14) On November 20, 1992, the United States Court of Appeals 
    for the 7th Circuit, in Sherman v. Community Consolidated School 
    District 21, 980 F.2d 437 (7th Cir. 1992), held that a school 
    district's policy for voluntary recitation of the Pledge of 
    Allegiance including the words ``under God'' was constitutional.
        (15) The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals erroneously held, in 
    Newdow v. U.S. Congress (9th Cir. June 26, 2002), that the Pledge 
    of Allegiance's use of the express religious reference ``under 
    God'' violates the First Amendment to the Constitution, and that, 
    therefore, a school district's policy and practice of teacher-led 
    voluntary recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance is 
    unconstitutional.
        (16) The erroneous rationale of the 9th Circuit Court of 
    Appeals in Newdow would lead to the absurd result that the 
    Constitution's use of the express religious reference ``Year of our 
    Lord'' in Article VII violates the First Amendment to the 
    Constitution, and that, therefore, a school district's policy and 
    practice of teacher-led voluntary recitations of the Constitution 
    itself would be unconstitutional.

SEC. 2. ONE NATION UNDER GOD.

    (a) Reaffirmation.--Section 4 of title 4, United States Code, is 
amended to read as follows:

``Sec. 4. Pledge of allegiance to the flag; manner of delivery

    ``The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag: `I pledge allegiance to the 
Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it 
stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for 
all.', should be rendered by standing at attention facing the flag with 
the right hand over the heart. When not in uniform men should remove 
any non-religious headdress with their right hand and hold it at the 
left shoulder, the hand being over the heart. Persons in uniform should 
remain silent, face the flag, and render the military salute.''.
    (b) Codification.--In codifying this subsection, the Office of the 
Law Revision Counsel shall show in the historical and statutory notes 
that the 107th Congress reaffirmed the exact language that has appeared 
in the Pledge for decades.

SEC. 3. REAFFIRMING THAT GOD REMAINS IN OUR MOTTO.

    (a) Reaffirmation.--Section 302 of title 36, United States Code, is 
amended to read as follows:

``Sec. 302. National motto

    ```In God we trust' is the national motto.''.
    (b) Codification.--In codifying this subsection, the Office of the 
Law Revision Counsel shall make no change in section 302, title 36, 
United States Code, but shall show in the historical and statutory 
notes that the 107th Congress reaffirmed the exact language that has 
appeared in the Motto for decades.

                               Speaker of the House of Representatives.

                            Vice President of the United States and    
                                               President of the Senate.