The U.S. Supreme Court said on Tuesday it would decide whether the recitation in public schools of the Pledge of Allegiance with the phrase "under God" was an unconstitutional government endorsement of religion.

The court said it would consider whether a public school district policy requiring teachers to lead willing students in reciting the pledge violated the First Amendment, which bars the government establishment or endorsement of religion.

Kindergartners at Mayfair Elementary in Fresno, Calif., recite the Pledge of Allegiance, June 27, 2002. The Supreme Court said Tuesday it will decide whether the Pledge of Allegiance recited by generations of American schoolchildren is an unconstitutional blending of church and state.  [AP]

The justices agreed to review a controversial ruling by a U.S. appeals court in San Francisco that the pledge, recited by millions of American schoolchildren each day, violated the constitutional separation of church and state.

The appeals court's initial ruling in 2002 caused a political furor nationwide, with President Bush calling the decision "ridiculous" and the U.S. Senate unanimously approving a resolution supporting the pledge.

The words "under God" were added to the pledge as part of a 1954 law adopted by Congress in an effort to distinguish America's religious values and heritage from those of communism, which is atheistic.

Students "pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

A California law requires the pledge to be recited once each day at public elementary schools, although no child is required to join in.

"This is the most controversial religion-in-schools case since the school prayer decisions of the early 1960s," said the Rev. Barry Lynn of the group Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Atheist Michael Newdow sued in 2000 and claimed his daughter, who attended the second grade at a public school near Sacramento, had to listen to the teacher-led pledge and that it constituted a "daily indoctrination" with "religious dogma."

The Supreme Court said it would consider whether Newdow had the legal right to challenge the school district policy. He did not have custody of the child when he brought the lawsuit. The mother, Sandra Banning, who has custody, says she wants the girl to say the pledge.

SCALIA NOT PARTICIPATING

Justice Antonin Scalia, one of the court's most conservative members who normally votes for government displays of religious phrases or symbols, did not take part in the pledge case.

Newdow had urged Scalia to remove himself from the case. In a speech in January in Fredericksburg, Virginia, Scalia questioned whether courts should remove religious symbols and phrases from public life.

"We could eliminate 'under God' from the Pledge of Allegiance. That could be democratically done," he said. But he added that would be "contrary to our whole tradition."

The high court agreed to hear an appeal by the California school district. The school district argued the appeals court improperly found the pledge was a profession of religious belief.

The high court turned down a separate appeal by Solicitor General Theodore Olson of the Justice Department, but said he could file a brief in the case expressing the views of the U.S. government, which defends the use of the phrase "under God."

The high court also rejected a separate appeal by Newdow, who is acting as his own lawyer, and who wanted the justices to uphold the initial broader ruling of the appeals court.

The appeals court slightly amended and narrowed its opinion in February 2003, but reaffirmed its main holding in a decision that affects 9.6 million schoolchildren in its jurisdiction.

The justices will hear arguments in the case early next year, with a decision due by the end of June.

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