JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA won’t participate in the Pledge of Allegiance case, which the Supreme Court last week accepted for review. Justices typically don’t explain their recusals, and Scalia didn’t say why he took himself out of Elk Grove School District v. Newdow. The code of conduct for federal judges says that a judge should avoid public comment on the merits of a pending case. Last summer Scalia publicly criticized the Ninth Circuit for ruling in Newdow that the Pledge is an unconstitutional establishment of religion since it describes the nation as “under God.” Michel Newdow, the self-professed atheist who brought the case, cited the Justice’s remarks in a filing last month that questioned Scalia’s impartiality.