Opinion ID: 179184
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Endorsement Analysis

Text: Under the related endorsement analysis, courts must consider whether the challenged governmental action has the purpose or effect of endorsing, favoring, or promoting religion. County of Allegheny, 492 U.S. at 593-94, 109 S.Ct. 3086. The Establishment Clause, at the very least, prohibits government from appearing to take a position on questions of religious belief or from `making adherence to a religion relevant in any way to a person's standing in the political community.' County of Allegheny, 492 U.S. at 593-94, 109 S.Ct. 3086 (quoting Lynch, 465 U.S. at 687, 104 S.Ct. 1355 (O'Connor, J., concurring)). A practice in which the state is involved may not send[] the ancillary message to members of the audience who are nonadherents `that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community, and an accompanying message to adherents that they are insiders, favored members of the political community.' Santa Fe, 530 U.S. at 309-10, 120 S.Ct. 2266 (quoting Lynch, 465 U.S. at 688, 104 S.Ct. 1355 (O'Connor, J., concurring)). At the heart of FFRF's claim is its argument that those students who choose not to recite the Pledge for reasons of non-belief in God are quite visibly differentiated from other students who stand and participate. The result, FFRF argues, is that the recitation of the Pledge makes the Doe children outsiders to their peer group on the grounds of their religion. FFRF's premise is that children who choose not to recite the Pledge become outsiders based on their beliefs about religion. That premise is flawed. Under the New Hampshire Act, both the choice to engage in the recitation of the Pledge and the choice not to do so are entirely voluntary. The reasons pupils choose not to participate are not themselves obvious. There are a wide variety of reasons why students may choose not to recite the Pledge, including many reasons that do not rest on either religious or anti-religious belief. These include political disagreement with reciting the Pledge, a desire to be different, a view of our country's history or the significance of the flag that differs from that contained in the Pledge, and no reason at all. Even students who agree with the Pledge may choose not to recite the Pledge. Thus, the Doe children are not religiously differentiated from their peers merely by virtue of their non-participation in the Pledge. Furthermore, the constitutionality of a state statute does not turn on the subjective feelings of plaintiffs as to whether a religious endorsement has occurred. Rather, in the endorsement analysis, the court assumes the viewpoint of an objective observer acquainted with the text, legislative history, and implementation of the statute. Santa Fe, 530 U.S. at 308, 120 S.Ct. 2266 (quoting Wallace, 472 U.S. at 73, 76, 105 S.Ct. 2479 (O'Connor, J., concurring in the judgment)). [19] Indeed, in a wide variety of contexts, the law rejects tests relying on subjectivity and utilizes the analytic device of asking how a reasonable and objective observer would view the matter in question. See, e.g., Capitol Square Review & Advisory Bd. v. Pinette, 515 U.S. 753, 779-781, 115 S.Ct. 2440, 132 L.Ed.2d 650 (1995) (O'Connor, J., concurring in part and concurring in the judgment) (In this respect, the applicable observer is similar to the `reasonable person' in tort law, who `is not to be identified with any ordinary individual, who might occasionally do unreasonable things,' but is `rather a personification of a community ideal of reasonable behavior, determined by the [collective] social judgment.') (quoting W. Keeton, D. Dobbs, R. Keeton, & D. Owen, Prosser and Keeton on Law of Torts 175 (5th ed.1984)). Adopting the view of the objective observer fully aware of the relevant circumstances, we conclude there has been no endorsement of religion. The state legislature passed the New Hampshire Act in the aftermath of September 11, 2001 with the intent of fostering patriotism, see, e.g., N.H.S. Jour. 945-67 (2002), and that is the statute's effect. Taken in the context of the words of the whole Pledge, the phrase under God does not convey a message of endorsement. The importance of context in the endorsement inquiry is made clear by two cases in which the Supreme Court has addressed the display of crèches at Christmas. In the first case, Lynch, the Court concluded that although a crèche displayed by the city was itself religious, the fact that it was located in a broader holiday display clarified to the reasonable observer that the city was, as part of the holiday, simply acknowledging religion with the crèche and not endorsing it. Lynch, 465 U.S. at 679-80, 104 S.Ct. 1355. By contrast, the Court in County of Allegheny concluded that a display of a crèche in a county courthouse with an angel bearing a banner proclaiming Gloria in Excelsis Deo, with no surrounding secular objects to change the message conveyed, was an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. County of Allegheny, 492 U.S. at 598, 109 S.Ct. 3086. Along this spectrum, the two word phrase under God in the thirty-one words of the Pledge is much closer to the crèche at issue in Lynch. The phrase is surrounded by words that modify its significancenot by changing its meaning, but rather by providing clarity to the message conveyed and its purpose. Cf. Lynch, 465 U.S. at 692, 104 S.Ct. 1355 (O'Connor, J., concurring) (Although the religious and indeed sectarian significance of the crèche ... is not neutralized by the setting, the overall holiday setting changes what viewers may fairly understand to be the purpose of the display.). Here, the words under God appear in a pledge to a flagitself a secular exercise, accompanied by no other religious language or symbolism. We reject FFRF's claim of unconstitutional endorsement.