WASHINGTON – The California atheist who took his battle against the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance all the way to the US Supreme Court should have never gotten into a federal courthouse in the first place.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0615/p01s01-usju.html

In the end, the court may have opted for the most pragmatic route. "It is a way out for the court," says Douglas Laycock, a law professor at University of Texas at Austin. "It was politically impossible to strike it down, and legally impossible to uphold it."

Some legal experts are expressing disappointment that the high court declined to address the broader issue, and many say the decision sets the stage for yet another church-state showdown.

Despite the apparent dodge, some legal analysts say they are pleased with the broader outcome - that all earlier rulings by the San Francisco-based Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals declaring the Pledge policy unconstitutional are reversed.