ABSTRACT
In enforcing a state policy requiring all public elementary schools to begin each day with "appropriate patriotic exercises," the Elk Grove Unified School District in Sacramento County, California, required that each class salute the American flag and recite the Pledge of Allegiance. In Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow, issued on Flag Day, the US Supreme Court reversed the Ninth Circuit, with all eight justices participating in agreement on reversal. Justice John Paul Stevens's majority decision, in which Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, David H. Sou- ter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen G. Breyer concurred, focused on Newdow's perceived lack of "standing," a principle of legal procedure used to determine whether a particular party is entitled to bring a lawsuit to court. In concurrence, Justice Thomas argued that the Establishment Clause, which he believed to have been a "federalism provision," could not be "incorporated" against the states.
