00                      HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 15                                                                     
01 Relating to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, to its decision                                   
02 concerning the Pledge of Allegiance, and to removing Alaska from the jurisdiction of the                                
03 Ninth Circuit.                                                                                                          
04 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
05       WHEREAS this country was established on a basis of religious freedom by our                                     
06 founding fathers, many of whom were deeply religious; and                                                               
07       WHEREAS the Pledge of Allegiance was written by Francis Bellamy, a Baptist                                      
08 minister, and was first published in the September 8, 1892, issue of Youth's Companion; and                             
09       WHEREAS, in 1954, the United States Congress added the words "under God" to the                                 
10 Pledge of Allegiance; and                                                                                               
11       WHEREAS President Eisenhower, in adding these words, said "These words will                                     
12 remind Americans that despite our great physical strength we must remain humble.  They will                             
13 help us to keep constantly in our minds and hearts the spiritual and moral principles which                             
14 alone give dignity to man, and upon which our way of life is founded."; and                                             
15       WHEREAS, in 1954, the United States Congress believed it was acting                                             

01 constitutionally when it revised the Pledge of Allegiance; and                                                          
02       WHEREAS patriotic songs, engravings on United States legal tender, engravings on                                
03 federal buildings, and the Preamble to the Constitution of the State of Alaska also contain                             
04 general references to "God"; and                                                                                        
05       WHEREAS, in accordance with decisions of the United States Supreme Court, public                                
06 school students cannot be forced to recite the Pledge of Allegiance without violating their                             
07 First Amendment rights; and                                                                                             
08       WHEREAS, despite this history, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of                                
09 Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in the case of Newdow v. U.S. Congress, held in 2002 that the                             
10 phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance violates the separation of church and state;                             
11 and                                                                                                                     
12       WHEREAS, over the objections of nine of 24 judges, the Ninth Circuit Court of                                   
13 Appeals rejected a request to reconsider its decision and, in a slightly modified form, let stand                       
14 the two to one decision of the panel; and                                                                               
15       WHEREAS the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit encompasses the                                
16 States of Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and                                      
17 Washington, as well as the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands and Guam; and                                  
18       WHEREAS the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit oversees nearly                                
19 one-fifth of the population of the United States, and has nearly twice as many judges as the                            
20 next largest circuit court; and                                                                                         
21       WHEREAS the Ninth Circuit was reversed five of the first six times it was reviewed                              
22 in the October 2002 term, including three unanimous and per curiam reversals; and                                       
23       WHEREAS cases involving crucial federal legislation affecting Alaska exclusively,                               
24 such as the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and the Alaska National Interest Lands                                  
25 Conservation Act, require great familiarity with such legislation to properly adjudicate, due to                        
26 the great complexity of the legislation; and                                                                            
27       WHEREAS a Ninth Circuit judge cannot attain the necessary familiarity with federal                              
28 legislation affecting Alaska because a Ninth Circuit judge may only sit on a panel in Alaska                            
29 once every 10 years, as a result of the extraordinary size of the court; and                                            
30       WHEREAS this unfamiliarity has resulted in decisions such as the 1996 Ninth Circuit                             
31 decision in Alaska v. Native Village of Venetie, which caused great political turmoil in                                

01 Alaska before being unanimously reversed by the United States Supreme Court;                                            
02       BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature respectfully requests the United                               
03 States Congress to divide the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit into two                             
04 more circuit courts in order to resolve the problems caused by its size, or to take other action                        
05 that results in the removal of Alaska from the jurisdiction of that court; and be it                                    
06       FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature strongly supports review                                     
07 by the United States Supreme Court of the decision by the United States Court of Appeals for                            
08 the Ninth Circuit in Newdow v. U.S. Congress and urges the United States Department of                                  
09 Justice to vigorously seek that review so that the constitutionality of the words "under God" in                        
10 the Pledge of Allegiance is reaffirmed.                                                                                 
11       COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable George W. Bush, President                              
12 of the United States; the Honorable Richard B. Cheney, Vice-President of the United States                              
13 and President of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Ted Stevens, President Pro Tempore of the                               
14 U.S. Senate and member of the Alaska delegation in Congress; the Honorable J. Dennis                                    
15 Hastert, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; the Honorable John Ashcroft,                                     
16 Attorney General of the United States; all Justices of the United States Supreme Court; and to                          
17 the Honorable Lisa Murkowski, U.S. Senator, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S.                                           
18 Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.