Michael Newdow

Michael Newdow
Speaking at the Atheist Alliance International Convention, 2008
Born	Michael Arthur Newdow (1953-06-24) June 24, 1953 (age 63) New York City, New York
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Brown University UCLA University of Michigan

Michael Arthur Newdow (born June 24, 1953) is an American attorney and emergency medicine physician. He is best known for his efforts to have recitations of the current version of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools in the United States declared unconstitutional because of its inclusion of the phrase "under God". He also filed and lost a lawsuit to stop the invocation prayer at President Bush's second inauguration and in 2009 he filed a lawsuit to prevent references to God and religion from being part of President Obama's inauguration.

Newdow is an atheist and an ordained minister of the Universal Life Church. In 1997, he started an organization called FACTS (First Atheist Church of True Science), which advocates strong separation of church and state in public institutions. He also serves on the Advisory Board of Secular Coalition for America.

Newdow grew up in the Bronx and in Teaneck, New Jersey, where his nominally Jewish family moved in 1960. He graduated from Teaneck High School.

After graduating from high school, Newdow attended Brown University, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in biology in 1974. He told Brown Alumni Magazine that he can’t remember ever believing in God, saying, "I was born an atheist."

He then attended the UCLA School of Medicine, earning his M.D. in 1978. He has worked as an emergency room physician at numerous hospitals, and holds medical licenses in California and several other states.