Word: newdow
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...Appeals, which has jurisdiction over nine western states including California, Goodwin held last week that the words under God were unconstitutional because they violated the separation of church and state required by the First Amendment. He was responding to a case brought by Sacramento, Calif. emergency-room physician Michael Newdow, an atheist who argued that his daughter?s rights were infringed when the phrase was included in the pledge at her school each morning. Goodwin reasoned that saying, "we are a nation ?under God? " is equivalent to saying "we are a nation ?under Jesus,? a nation ?under Vishnu,? a nation...
...living room littered with stuffed animals, kids? shoes and Blockbuster videos, Mike Newdow sits cross-legged on the floor eating sherbet and listening to tape after tape of his answering machine messages. "You will be punished. You need to fear for your life," says one caller. Newdow nods, puts down the ice cream and picks up his guitar. "Mike, this is God. I?m really upset with you," says the tape. Newdow strums Paul McCartney's "Blackbird," a strange soundtrack to the steady stream of abuse. "I bet you?ve said it, Mike. I bet you've said...
...That?s one of the first things you notice about this 49-year-old Sacramento area doctor. Even with 20 cameramen camped out on the lawn and the phone ringing every minute and his eight-year-old daughter spending the night somewhere else for her own safety and Newdow himself only having had an hour?s sleep since yesterday, he?s still pretty picky about language. (Don?t get him started on the lack of a gender-neutral pronoun in English. He has invented his own - "ree" - and uses it in conversation constantly.) Then again, fastidiousness is exactly what...
...Newdow, meanwhile, spent the week racking up quite a collection of death threats, some vague, some specific, and most of them left on his home answering machine. He seemed quite unmoved by the ire of his fellow citizens, taking reporters around his rose garden Thursday and shrugging off criticism. And then, as if he knew precisely how to annoy his new enemies most, he mused on Thursday's Today show, "I believe I am strengthening the Constitution with my case...
...know it from the media frenzy that followed Wednesday's decision, some lawyers agree with him. They say that in the strictest reading of the Constitution there is no room for religious terminology in what should be a secular space. While some legal experts applauded the intent of Newdow's suit, no one seemed to think the ruling would survive very long. But for pundits and politicians the fuss can go on forever...