Court Nixes Challenge to 'So Help Me God' in Oath
(CN) - The D.C. Circuit on Friday dismissed as moot a lawsuit challenging the religious elements of President Obama's inauguration, including the inaugural prayers and the phrase "so help me God" in the presidential oath.
A group of atheists said they skipped President Obama's inauguration after learning that the ceremony would include invocation and benediction prayers by Revs. Rick Warren and Joseph Lowery, and that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. would refer to God while administering the oath.
They never challenged Obama's recitation of "so help me God," however, because they conceded that barring him from making any religious references would violate his First Amendment rights.
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f it were otherwise," the appeals court wrote, "George Washington could not have begun the tradition by appending 'So help me God' to his own oath" and "Lincoln could not have offered a war-weary nation 'malice toward none' and 'charity for all ... with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right.'"
http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/05/07/27104.htm