E-mail:
Jack Balkin: jackbalkin at yahoo.com
Bruce Ackerman bruce.ackerman at yale.edu
Ian Ayres ian.ayres at yale.edu
Corey Brettschneider corey_brettschneider at brown.edu
Mary Dudziak mary.l.dudziak at emory.edu
Joey Fishkin joey.fishkin at gmail.com
Heather Gerken heather.gerken at yale.edu
Abbe Gluck abbe.gluck at yale.edu
Mark Graber mgraber at law.umaryland.edu
Stephen Griffin sgriffin at tulane.edu
Jonathan Hafetz jonathan.hafetz at shu.edu
Jeremy Kessler jkessler at law.columbia.edu
Andrew Koppelman akoppelman at law.northwestern.edu
Marty Lederman msl46 at law.georgetown.edu
Sanford Levinson slevinson at law.utexas.edu
David Luban david.luban at gmail.com
Gerard Magliocca gmaglioc at iupui.edu
Jason Mazzone mazzonej at illinois.edu
Linda McClain lmcclain at bu.edu
John Mikhail mikhail at law.georgetown.edu
Frank Pasquale pasquale.frank at gmail.com
Nate Persily npersily at gmail.com
Michael Stokes Paulsen michaelstokespaulsen at gmail.com
Deborah Pearlstein dpearlst at yu.edu
Rick Pildes rick.pildes at nyu.edu
David Pozen dpozen at law.columbia.edu
Richard Primus raprimus at umich.edu
K. Sabeel Rahmansabeel.rahman at brooklaw.edu
Alice Ristroph alice.ristroph at shu.edu
Neil Siegel siegel at law.duke.edu
David Super david.super at law.georgetown.edu
Brian Tamanaha btamanaha at wulaw.wustl.edu
Nelson Tebbe nelson.tebbe at brooklaw.edu
Mark Tushnet mtushnet at law.harvard.edu
Adam Winkler winkler at ucla.edu
Today the Supreme Court rejected Michael Newdow's challenge to public school teachers leading the Pledge of Allegiance using the words "under God." The Court held that Newdow did not have standing to raise the issue on behalf of his daughter. The Washington Post has the story. The text of the opinion is available here.
This is exactly what I hoped the Court would do. I wanted them to avoid a decision on the merits because the legal claims on the merits are very difficult indeed. Here are two discussions in February 2003 and March of this year. However, as I said in this post, despite the fact that the law is largely on his side "If Newdow wins his case, it will prove that atheism is wrong, because it's going to take a miracle." The Supreme Court today proved me right, holding against Newdow without badly mangling the law of the Establishment Clause. (The law of standing, on the other hand, is already so badly mangled that it's hard to see what more damage they could possibly do to it.)
Justice John Paul Stevens wrote the majority opinon. Chief Justice William Rehnquist, joined by Justices O'Connor and Thomas, also wrote to state their view that the recitation of the "under God" version of the Pledge does not violate the Constitution.
I'll have more when I get a chance to read the opinions.
UPDATE: Clarence Thomas uses the opportunity to argue that the Establishment Clause should not be held applicable to the States. Now we know what it would be like to have Judge Roy Moore on the Supreme Court.