The song was released as a CD single and as a free download on the group's website in December 2002; it was later included on a re-release of Readymades.

Following its release, it was featured in multiple collections of anti-war songs, and the group performed it at a January 2003 protest in Washington, DC.

[4] It includes the lyrics "When we're pushing up daisies/We all look the same" and also alludes to the September 11 attacks, with the lines "9/11 got branded/9/11 got sold/And there'll be no one left to water/All the seeds you sow".

[11] It was also made available as a free download on the group's website, Chumba.com; on the site, they labeled the song "an anti-war MP3".

[8] In December 2016, following Donald Trump's victory in the previous month's presidential election, "Jacob's Ladder (Not in My Name)" was included in a retrospective by Newsweek on "Bush-era protest music" and whether it "still hold(s) up".