Massachusetts' Supreme Judicial Court has agreed to hear the appeal of a non-religious family who is challenging the mandatory daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in their children's classrooms, the Religion News Service reports. The family of secular humanists claims the phrase "under God" in the pledge is a violation of the state's constitutional ban on religious discrimination. In June, a lower court ruled against the family, saying the required recitation of the pledge was not discriminatory because it did not uphold one religion over another. The family appealed, and will now gain a hearing from the state's highest court. "There is very little case law that precedes this," said Bill Burgess, director of the American Humanist Association's Appignani Humanist Legal Center, which is representing the plaintiffs. "The court will be making new law when it issues its decision." The appeal in the case, Doe v. Acton-Boxborough Regional School District, has not yet been scheduled.
