HOST: Hello, I'm Russell Woodgates with the VOA News Now Opinion Roundup!

MD OPINION ROUNDUP THEME -- I&U

Right in the middle of a North American heatwave America has a summertime firestorm. Not the Western wildfires. Not the Worldcom financial scandal. But the ruling by a three-man panel of federal judges that America's pledge of allegiance to the flag violates the U-S Constitution because it refers to the United States of America as "one nation, under God, indivisible..." The words "under God" were mandated by the U-S Congress during the height of the Cold War. But on Wednesday, two of the three judges ruled the words unconstitutional because they violate the concept of a strict separation between church and state. Wrote one of the judges, "A profession that we are a nation 'under God' is identical . . . to a profession that we are a nation 'under Jesus,' a nation 'under Vishnu,' a nation 'under Zeus,' or a nation 'under no god,' because none of these professions can be neutral with respect to religion,"

Within hours, the President of the United States, Republican and Democratic leaders in both houses of Congress and radio talk show hosts across the nation were condemning the ruling. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reflects several editorials that appeared Thursday in U-S newspapers:

VOICE Some Americans might feel more comfortable pledging their allegiance -- and the nation might be more indivisible -- if the Pledge did not contain the reference to God. Nor should Americans be tempted to think that God is always on our side. But even cherished legal principles, such as the separation of church and state, can be taken to absurd lengths.

But CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen sees a possible justification for some review of the use of God's name in the Pledge:

VOICE What's worse ? Is it more shocking ... that Congress would expressly endorse monotheistic religion during the Cold War by putting "under God" into the Pledge as a response to godless communism? Or is it more shocking ... that two judges would take the Pledge out of our public schools in 2002 because a ... child was unduly pressured by having to "watch and listen as her state-employed teacher in her state-run school leads her classmates in a ritual proclaiming that there is a God and that America is "one nation under God"?

By all indications, the U-S Supreme Court will have to decide the answer. In the meantime, it's expected that the Pledge of Allegiance will become the latest battleground in a growing dispute over the role of religion in American puplic life.