Atheist Lawsuit Tossed Out

No surprise here:

America's most litigious atheist, Michael Newdow of California, was handed a defeat today by U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton in Newdow's attempt to prevent President-elect Barack Obama from saying "so help me God" during his oath of office on Inauguration Day.

The Constitution states that the president must say: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

For centuries -- though it's unclear if the tradition dates back to George Washington -- presidents have been adding "so help me God" to that pledge.

Newdow, who lost a battle in the U.S. Supreme Court to have the words "under God" excised from the pledge of allegiance, is one of 18 people and 10 atheist organizations who sued Chief Justice John Roberts, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and two of the pastors who will be part of the Inaugural ceremony -- Rev. Joseph Lowery and Rev. Rick Warren -- to prevent Mr. Obama from adding the heavenly acknowledgement, and to prevent Lowery from delivering the benediction and Warren the invocation.

The references to God, the plaintiffs argued, "are completely exclusionary, showing absolute disrespect to plaintiffs and others of similar religious views, who explicitly reject the purely religious claims that will be endorsed, i.e., (a) there exists a God, and (b) the United States government should pay homage to that God."

Attorney generals from all 50 states and the Justice Department asked Walton to throw the case out of court.

While I disagree with Newdow, there is always a risk that some court will side with him because of previous cases. If the courts can tell a cheerleader she can't pray before a football game, or a valedictorian that he can't pray or use the name of Jesus in his valedictory address, why couldn't they tell a president he can't use the name of God in his oath? The court cases have clearly been contradictory.