Innledning
The United States of America was founded on a set of beliefs which includes that all men are created equal, and for that reason, they have certain unalienable rights such as freedom of speech, liberty, the right to a fair trial and freedom of religion.

These rights are written in the US Constitution, a document which sets the standard for just about everything.

Religion has played a significant part in US society since the very beginning, and all US citizens have the right to freedom of religion.

But when the founder of American Atheists, Madalyn Murray O’Hair, claimed the right to not belong to any religion at all in the 1960’s, that was unheard of for most people.

She fought for the separation of church and state, and that fight is still going on today, because the Freedom of Religion is being violated in American public schools.

Utdrag
In 1943, the US Supreme Court ruled in the case of West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette that “the Free Speech clause of the First Amendment prohibits public schools from forcing students to salute the American flag and say the Pledge of Allegiance.”

Students could no longer be forced to say the Pledge, but still there were no rulings on prayer until Murray O’Hair brought it to the Court in 1963.

In 1954, however, President Eisenhower asked Congress to add the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance, and they did.

This was at the time of the Red Scare, where he used these words to oppose the state atheism of the feared ideologies overseas.

Removing these words from the pledge was another one of the fights that Murray O’Hair fought. She did not win this one, and there are still people trying to get rid of the words today. 45 out of 50 states require the pledge to be recited in all public schools every single day.

The Pledge of Allegiance challenges the Freedom of Religion. The First Amendment reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”