Habecker v. Town of Estes Park, Colorado (D. CO, Sept. 21, 2006), is a challenge to the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance that arose in a rather unusual context. David Habecker, a town trustee was recalled in an election in which the dominant issue was whether citizens wished to be represented by an official who refused to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance at trustees' meetings. A Colorado federal district court dismissed the case on standing grounds because it was not the Pledge that caused Habecker's recall, he was not forced to recite the Pledge, and a declaratory judgment regarding the Pledge would not remedy his recall. It found that the case was moot because Habecker was no longer in office. The court went on to find that even if the case were justiciable, since trustees' meetings could be opened with an explicit prayer, there was no constitutional problem with opening the meetings with the Pledge. Finally the court held that the action of citizens in circulating a petition and voting for Habecker's recall was private action, not state action.
A report on the case in Saturday's Rocky Mountain News points out that the U.S. Justice Department had entered the case on the side of the town, arguing that the Pledge is merely a patriotic exercise.
