Judge Who Wrote Decision That Pledge of Allegiance Was Unconstitutional Says It Was Reasonable

AP via TBO ^ | June 28,2002 | Joseph B. Frazier

[John W]

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Judge Alfred "Ted" Goodwin has a reputation for plain talk and carefully crafted opinions. Now the former cowboy has shaken up the country with a ruling that the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional. In a telephone interview Friday from his summer home in Sisters, the federal appeals court judge defended his decision: "It's not as far out as a lot of headline writers seem to think."

Goodwin wrote the decision for a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled 2-1 Wednesday that the phrase "under God" in the pledge violates the constitutional separation of church and state.

"A lot of lawyers think (the 'under God' reference) is inconsistent with the establishment clause of the First Amendment," Goodwin said Friday.

Goodwin's ruling was condemned in resolutions passed by the U.S. House and the Senate, and President Bush called it "ridiculous." It's been castigated by people interviewed on national TV shows and talk radio.

"I knew it would be an attention-getter," the judge said.

He said he doubts whether the loudest critics have actually read the decision and that some are clearly "clueless" about the ruling and its issue: a teacher-led recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in classrooms, not at city council meetings or on Capitol Hill.

Goodwin is a senior status judge on the appeals court and stopped hearing cases full time 10 years ago. He turns 79 on Saturday.

Born in Bellingham, Wash., to a minister father, he went to the University of Oregon. He served in World War II and was a cowboy and newspaper reporter before using the GI Bill to go to law school.

He worked in private practice and as a circuit judge before Gov. Mark O. Hatfield appointed him to the Oregon Supreme Court in 1960.

In a 1969 National Geographic article about Oregon, Goodwin was depicted as the cowboy who became a judge. Pictures showed him on horseback preparing to rope a calf and in his judicial robes.

That same year, when U.S. Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas resigned under an ethics cloud, Hatfield pushed President Nixon to appoint Goodwin to the high court.

Nixon chose Harry Blackmun, but appointed Goodwin a U.S. District judge and elevated him to the appeals court in 1971.

The judge is known as a straight-shooter.

"Ted Goodwin was a Nixon appointee, and he does not have a reputation for being a liberal judge," former Oregon Supreme Court Chief Justice Edwin Peterson told the Salem Statesman-Journal.

Goodwin is not known as a conservative judge, but rather as someone who might take the middle ground.

"He has a reputation for calling it like he sees it," Peterson said. "He is his own man. He writes carefully considered opinions."

Goodwin on Thursday put the Pledge of Allegiance decision on hold until the 9th Circuit could review it. He said he was fairly sure it would go to the U.S. Supreme Court and thought that's where it should be decided.

The judge said he and Judge Stephen Reinhardt, who joined him in the decision, were "concerned about the indoctrination aspect of the religious reference" in the pledge.

Goodwin acknowledged that being an appeals court judge is not a popularity contest.

"If you have a political agenda you should never be a judge, you should run for Congress," he said.

[John W]

Admin. Moderator-Pull the first one from Newsday,didn't realize they're part of the settlement.Sorry.

[Khepera]

Well it WAS reasonable until he made his ruling thats for sure.

[ex-snook]

This topic may be duplicated but anyway if one gets pulled.

Now if he said one nation' was unconstitutional that would be more widely accepted. After all we must have diversity. Those for 'one nation' are isolationist, nationalistic xenophobes like Buchanan in the USA and those guys in France and Holland. Hey, we want New World Order borderless countries, don't we? We'll take out God later.

[elbucko]

"...and was a cowboy and newspaper reporter....

Newspaper reporter cancels out cowboy. Kinda like a "self inflicted wound" to ones character.

[woofer]

"He has a reputation for calling it like he sees it," Peterson said. "He is his own man. He writes carefully considered opinions."

Gee, so carefully considered that the U.S. Supreme Court has seen fit to set aside 4 of his decisions.

In the same year.

Unanimously.

The dottering old goat is obviously on the brink of dementia if not well within the grasp of senility.

[Rebellans]

"If you have a political agenda you should never be a judge, you should run for Congress," he said.

Yeah, I'm sure this guy has no political agenda whatsoever; he was just applying the Constitution -- the same Constitution that was signed on "the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven."

[gaspar]

He was pushed by Mark Hatfield, Oregon senator, one of the West's most liberal senators, ever!

The combination of preacher's son and the U. of Oregon are the perfect ingredients for an explosive cultural molotov cocktail. At least it can be said of the old fart that he went out with a bang.

[desertcry]

"The judge is 79 years old". There should be a mandatory retirement for judges, before they turn senile, and become a threat to our society.

[goodieD]

I knew it would be an attention-getter," the judge said.

Which is exactly why you did it, you grandstanding old coot.

[Intolerant in NJ]

Gee, so carefully considered that the U.S. Supreme Court has seen fit to set aside 4 of his decisions...and his henchman, Reinhardt, isn't any better - according to Fox News, of eighty cases heard by the Supremes this year, five involved decisions written by Reinhardt, and two of them were overturned unanimously...in 1999, all ten of the cases from the 9th Circuit heard by the high court were reversed...no wonder it's been nicknamed the "9th Circus"....

[Texas Mom]

The judge is 79 years old". There should be a mandatory retirement for judges, before they turn senile, and become a threat to our society.

He is retired but because it is taking the democrats so long to approve George Bushes appointees, he was asked to come back and fill the vacant seat and he agreed to.

I heard the Judge on Fox can't spell his name (Napenatella?) explain this yesterday.

[woofer]

Thanks for inadvertently correcting me, IiNJ. I saw that same segment and based my post on the info I derived from it. But I mistakenly subscribed it to the wrong Judge.

Thanks again, and this is one of the main reason I like FR, You learn, but learn correctly.

[desertcry]

The State of South Dakaota should be made aware of how much harm their Senators are doing to this country by blocking the process of confirmation of Judges. They should do an emmediate recall of tom daschle, before our justices system goes into chaos.

[Intolerant in NJ]

Always glad to help, especially inadvertently...