David F. Bauman is a retired New Jersey Superior Court judge for Vicinage 9 Criminal Court sitting in Freehold, the county seat of Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.
[4] He attended Columbia University (1981) and Boston College Law School (1986) and served as a lawyer in the United States Marine Corps.
[8]) In 2015, Bauman dismissed a case against the Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District brought by a student of the district and the American Humanist Association that argued that the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance created a climate of discrimination because it promoted religion, making non-believers “second-class citizens”.
[9][10] He noted; “As a matter of historical tradition, the words ‘under God’ can no more be expunged from the national consciousness than the words ‘In God We Trust’ from every coin in the land, than the words ‘so help me God’ from every presidential oath since 1789, or than the prayer that has opened every congressional session of legislative business since 1787.” Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie nominated Bauman and Robert Hanna to the Supreme Court of New Jersey in December 2012.
[15][16][7] The nomination is controversial, re-igniting an ongoing debate about the political composition of the Supreme Court,[17][18][19] which began when Christie chose not to re-nominate sitting Supreme Court Justice John E. Wallace, Jr. for life tenure.