The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is Federal District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton. This knucklehead masquerading as a judge ruled the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional because it violates the separation of church and state.

Where do judges like this and the five knuckleheads who were the majority in Kelo come from? They read into the constitution what is really their own dogma and forget what is written there. The furor from absolute stupidities and cases where our children suffer instead of those who should locked up for good will only last so long. A revolution will come one day. There is ample proof our judicial system has little respect for the law and the public safety and the public is gradually losing its respect for the judicial system. A breaking point will happen sooner or later.

Lunch/Open Trackback- Basil's blog and Mudville Gazette

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 14 - A federal judge in Sacramento ruled Wednesday that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools was an unconstitutional endorsement of religion, once again igniting a firestorm over the appropriateness of the pledge's reference to "under God."

The judge, Lawrence K. Karlton of Federal District Court, said that the decision would "satisfy no one involved" in the debate over "the role of religion in the civil life of this nation," but that he was bound by a ruling in 2002 by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco.

In that ruling, the Ninth Circuit concluded the recitation of the pledge, even if noncompulsory, "impermissibly coerces a religious act" and "places students in the untenable position of choosing between participating in an exercise with religious content or protesting."

The ruling Wednesday was denounced by conservative religious groups that urged its appeal. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, issued a similar plea.

Judge Karlton's decision came in a lawsuit brought by Michael Newdow, an atheist whose daughter attends a public school in Elk Grove, a suburb of Sacramento, and two families with children in two other school districts in the Sacramento area.