Court Opinion

ID: 9412945
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-01 22:46:15.653976+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:41:43.945194
License: Public Domain

REINHARDT, Circuit Judge,
concurring in the result only:
The majority opinion in Newdow v. Rio Linda Union School District, 597 F.3d 1007 (9th Cir.2010), which has today become the law of the circuit, fails to comprehend the constitutional principles set forth in the relevant Establishment Clause cases that the Supreme Court has decided in the years following our decision in Aronow v. United States, 432 F.2d 242 (9th Cir.1970). See Rio Linda dissent passim (Reinhardt, Circuit Judge). Because I am now required to follow that precedent, no matter how misguided, I am also now required to conclude that Newdow’s claims in this case are foreclosed by Aronow, and therefore to concur in the result. I do not express any view as to what result I might have reached in the absence of the numerous errors of constitutional law that the majority made in Rio Linda, and the erroneous result it reached.