Massachusetts ' highest court ruled Friday that the Pledge of Allegiance does not discriminate against atheists , saying that the words `` under God '' represent a patriotic , not a religious , exercise . All previous attempts to eliminate the mention of God in the pledge recited in classrooms across the country have failed , but the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts considered arguments seeking removal of the reference based on discrimination . The case was brought by an unidentified family of a student at a school in suburban Boston , whose lawyers argued that the pledge violates the Equal Rights Amendment of the state Constitution . It was the first such case at the state level . Roy Speckhardt , the executive director of the American Humanist Association , an atheist group that provided legal services for the plaintiffs , called the decision a setback . But he said the group felt confident about a similar case filed in New Jersey last week that seeks to show that the pledge engendered a climate of discrimination . In its ruling , the Massachusetts court said the pledge was voluntary and a `` fundamentally patriotic exercise , not a religious one . '' The decision said the plaintiffs failed to prove that reciting the pledge resulted in negative treatment . `` The plaintiffs here did not successfully allege that their children receive negative treatment because they opt not to recite the words 'under God , ' or that the inclusion of that phrase in the pledge has occasioned 'the creation of second-class citizens , ' `` the decision said . But the ruling said that `` should future plaintiffs demonstrate that the distinction created by the pledge as currently written has engendered bullying or differential treatment , '' the court `` would leave open the possibility that the equal rights amendment might provide a remedy . '' Speckhardt said that the recitation of the pledge resulted in some children being `` ostracized '' for being atheists and that the government was complicit in bullying and prejudice against those children . In 1954 , Congress amended the pledge to include the words `` under God '' during the escalation of the Cold War . The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has high-profile and precedent-setting experience deciding cases hinging on the Equal Rights Amendment of the Massachusetts Constitution . In 2003 , Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage with the Supreme Judicial Court 's landmark Goodridge decision .
The ` ` under the '' represents a ` ` patriotic exercise , not a religious one , '' court ordered . It was brought by an unidentified family of a student at a school in suburban Boston . They argued that pledge discriminates against atheist students .