Editing Separation of church and state (section)

====Pledge of Allegiance====
Critics of the American [[Pledge of Allegiance (United States)|Pledge of Allegiance]] have argued that the use of the phrase "under God" violates the separation of church and state. While the pledge was created by [[Francis Bellamy]] in 1891, in 1954, the [[Knights of Columbus]], a Catholic organization, campaigned with other groups to have the words "under God" added to the pledge. On June 14, 1954, President [[Dwight Eisenhower]] signed the bill to make the addition.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-man-who-wrote-the-pledge-of-allegiance-93907224/|title=The Man Who Wrote the Pledge of Allegiance|work=Smithsonian|access-date=2017-12-15|language=en|archive-date=2018-01-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180131235459/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-man-who-wrote-the-pledge-of-allegiance-93907224/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Since then, critics have challenged the existence of the phrase in the Pledge. In 2004, [[Michael Newdow]], an ordained [[atheist]] minister of the [[Universal Life Church]] challenged a Californian law which required students to recite the pledge. He said the law violated the First Amendment's Establishment Clause. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the school system in ''[[Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow]]'' due to the fact that the father could not claim sufficient custody of the child over his ex-wife who was the legal guardian and had opposed the lawsuit.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/the-latest-controversy-about-under-god-in-the-pledge-of-allegiance|title=The history of legal challenges to the Pledge of Allegiance – National Constitution Center|website=[[National Constitution Center]] – constitutioncenter.org|language=en|access-date=2017-12-15|archive-date=2017-10-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171003055808/https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/the-latest-controversy-about-under-god-in-the-pledge-of-allegiance|url-status=live}}</ref>