The Pledge Is Unconstitutional

Karlton said he was bound by precedent of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which in 2002 ruled in favor of Sacramento atheist Michael Newdow that the pledge is unconstitutional when recited in public schools.
The Supreme Court dismissed the case last year, saying Newdow lacked standing because he did not have custody of his elementary school daughter he sued on behalf of.
Newdow, an attorney and a medical doctor, filed an identical case on behalf of three unnamed parents and their children. Karlton said those families have the right to sue.
Newdow hopes that will make it more likely the merits of his case will be addressed by the high court.

"All it has to do is put the pledge as it was before, and say that we are one nation, indivisible, instead of dividing us on religious basis," Newdow told The Associated Press.

Of course, Newdow's egocentric crusade has had the net effect of doing precisely what he stated he wished to alleviate by filing suit: dividing America on religious basis. In this case, the division is pretty stark, as Ian Schwartz points out:

Athiests account for 902,000 or 0.4% of the US population. Those who believe in a God or some sort of a higher being account for over 86% of the US population. It is amazing that such a small minority can rule over a large majority.

Not so amazing when you think about it, though. On his 9/14 WABC radio program, Mark Levin noted that there are only around 1,000 federal judges, and as demonstrated by Karlton's ruling, they exercise far more power than even the tiny minority that Newdow belongs to.
We have reached a point where groups of Americans who are out of the mainstream and account for a miniscule percentage of the population have gained the ability to game the entire system by appealing to an even more infinitesimal minority, the federal judiciary, to force their views on the better part of 300,000,000 people.
The judicial confirmation hearings going on now, and the ones that will be going on in the very near future, mean everything because the people being considered, if confirmed, are empowered to ultimately rule on what constitutes the American way of life itself. As it stands, that sure ain't what it used to be.
I've got a lengthy plane trip planned for next month. I'll be purchasing this and reading it on the ride.