lution accomplished the next editing to the Pledge in 1924 with the additional clarification "the flag of the United States of America", over Bellamy's protestations.
             The final change, to date, to the pledge was championed by the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic organization which shepherded the addition "Under God" through Congress and President Eisenhower's ratification in 1954. The Pledge was now both a patriotic oath and a public prayer. The President believed that without God our nation could not enjoy the blessings from our Creator. He backed his belief by saying that the history of the United States was imbued with God and His supernatural intervention.
             It was not until recently that the phrase "under God" was challenged. On June 26, 2002 Senior Justice Alfred T. Goodwin, writing for the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, ruled in Newdow v. the U.S. Congress that the words "under God" violated the first amendment principle of separation of church and state and endorsed religion.
             Immediately, both houses of Congress and many state legislatures passed resolutions condemning the ruling
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