Opinion ID: 179184
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Three-Factored Lemon Analysis

Text: Under the Lemon analysis, [16] a court must consider three factors: First, the statute must have a secular legislative purpose; second, its principal or primary effect must be one that neither advances nor inhibits religion; finally, the statute must not foster `an excessive government entanglement with religion.' Lemon, 403 U.S. at 612-13, 91 S.Ct. 2105 (quoting Walz v. Tax Commission, 397 U.S. 664, 674, 90 S.Ct. 1409, 25 L.Ed.2d 697 (1970)) (citation omitted). As FFRF does not allege entanglement, the third prong is not at issue here. FFRF concedes that the New Hampshire Act has a secular purposethe promotion of patriotismbut insists that this does not end the inquiry. FFRF argues that Congress had an impermissible religious purpose when it added the words under God to the text of the Pledge in 1954, and that this fact must be considered in our analysis. Even if so, the argument does not go to the first factor. We look at the purpose of New Hampshire when it enacted the statute in 2002, in the aftermath of the tragedy of September 11, 2001. Because FFRF has stipulated that New Hampshire had a secular purpose, [17] its claim of impermissible governmental purpose clearly fails on the first prong of Lemon. FFRF argues, under the second factor, that the principal or primary effect of the New Hampshire Act is the advancement of religion. The Pledge's affirmation that ours is a nation, under God is not a mere reference to the fact that many Americans believe in a deity, nor to the undeniable historical significance of religion in the founding of our nation. As the Supreme Court recognized in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624, 63 S.Ct. 1178, 87 L.Ed. 1628 (1943), to recite the Pledge is to declare a belief and affirm[] ... an attitude of mind. Id. at 631, 633, 63 S.Ct. 1178. In reciting the Pledge, a student affirms a belief in its description of the nation. [18] For this reason, it is unconstitutional under the Free Speech Clause to require that students recite the Pledge in public schools. See id. at 642, 63 S.Ct. 1178 (If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.). In looking at the effect of the state's creation of a daily period for the voluntary recitation of the Pledge, we must consider the text as a whole and must take account of context and circumstances. See, e.g., Van Orden, 545 U.S. at 701, 125 S.Ct. 2854 (Breyer, J., concurring in the judgment) ([T]o determine the message that the text here conveys, we must examine how the text is used. And that inquiry requires us to consider the context of the display.); County of Allegheny, 492 U.S. at 598, 109 S.Ct. 3086 ([T]he effect of a créche display turns on its setting.). It takes more than the presence of words with religious content to have the effect of advancing religion, let alone to do so as a primary effect. As to context, there is no claim that a student is required to advance a belief in theism (or monotheism), nor is there any claim that a student is even encouraged by the faculty to say the Pledge if the student chooses not to do so. By design, the recitation of the Pledge in New Hampshire public schools is meant to further the policy of teaching our country's history to the elementary and secondary pupils of this state. N.H.Rev.Stat. Ann. § 194:15-c. The very purpose of a national flag is to serve as a symbol of our country. Elk Grove Unified Sch. Dist. v. Newdow, 542 U.S. 1, 6, 124 S.Ct. 2301, 159 L.Ed.2d 98 (2004) (quoting Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397, 405, 109 S.Ct. 2533, 105 L.Ed.2d 342 (1989)) (internal quotation marks omitted). As the Court has observed, the Pledge of Allegiance evolved as a common public acknowledgment of the ideals that our flag symbolizes. Its recitation is a patriotic exercise designed to foster national unity and pride in those principles. Id. In reciting the Pledge, students promise fidelity to our flag and our nation, not to any particular God, faith, or church. The New Hampshire School Patriot Act's primary effect is not the advancement of religion, but the advancement of patriotism through a pledge to the flag as a symbol of the nation.