AUTHOR’S NOTE: The author of this story is NOT a licensed attorney and does not claim to be one.
MSNBC anchor and neoliberal pundit Joy Reid essentially called for the U.S. federal government to blatantly violate the First Amendment by replacing our nation’s current national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner”, with “America the Beautiful”:
As much as “The Star-Spangled Banner” has become recognized by many around the world as America’s national anthem, I’m open to the idea of replacing “The Star-Spangled Banner” with a new national anthem, or even having more than one official national anthem, particularly if “The Star-Spangled Banner” is made the national military or wartime anthem and another song is made the national civilian or peacetime anthem. However, “America the Beautiful” is one song that I would not even remotely consider for a new national anthem, unless a change in lyrics is made. This is for one simple reason: the lyrics of “America the Beautiful” contain a reference to God, which does not make it inclusive of people who believe in a polytheistic religion or are irreligious. Here is the first verse of “America the Beautiful”:
O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
Here is the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, with an emphasized portion of the First Amendment in bold text:
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 peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
I may be just some guy with a DailyKos account, but it would seem to me that making “America the Beautiful” the national anthem would violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. This is because the lyrics of “America the Beautiful” contain a reference to God, and making “America the Beautiful” the national anthem would favor monotheistic religions (such as Christianity) over polytheistic religions, atheism, and so on.