The Supreme Court is brushing aside an atheist's challenge to religion in government, refusing to hear a complaint about President Barack Obama adding "so help me God" to his inaugural oath of office.

The high court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from Michael Newdow, who argued that government references to God are unconstitutional and infringe on his religious beliefs.

Many presidents have added "so help me God" to the oath.

Newdow sued to keep Obama from doing so and lost. He wanted overturned an appeals court's ruling saying it would be useless to ban Chief Justice John Roberts from prompting Obama to say "so help me God" because the president could have easily found someone else to administer the oath.

White supremacist Jeffrey Hall saw threats in the protesters who demonstrated outside his Southern California house. He installed a surveillance camera pointed at the cul-de-sac outside the tidy home where strangers might approach.

The threat he feared, however, was not outside. It came, authorities say, from within the home: His 10-year-old son shot him to death last week.

Police arriving at the house in the early morning hours on May 1 for a report of gunfire found Hall's body on a sofa.

Prosecutors won't say if they know the motive, but family court records portray a troubled boy who spent his first years hungry and living in filth while his parents went through a messy divorce that included accusations of child abuse.

Evidence about how he was reared is likely to surface in a case that raises questions about whether the boy is mature enough to know right from wrong and whether his father's extremist views played a role in the shooting.