2010-04-22

Judge Nixes 'National Prayer Day' But Obama Administration Will Fight to Protect Christian Right

AlterNet

A federal judge ruled that National Prayer Day's 'sole purpose is to encourage citizens to engage in prayer, an inherently religious exercise.'

April 22, 2010

On Tax Day last week, a federal judge in Wisconsin overturned a 58-year infringement on Americans' constitutional rights. In her ruling, Judge Barbara B. Crabb wrote that the National Day of Prayer Proclamation violates the First Amendment.

The case, Freedom From Religion Foundation v Barack Obama & Robert Gibbs, was originally filed against George W. Bush in 2008. In the judgment, Crabb wrote that the National Day of Prayer "goes beyond mere 'acknowledgment' of religion because its sole purpose is to encourage citizens to engage in prayer, an inherently religious exercise that serves no secular function in this context. In this instance, the government has taken sides on a matter that must be left to individual conscience." She continued by quoting a legal precedent: "When the government associates one set of religious beliefs with the state and identifies nonadherents as outsiders, it encroaches upon the individual's decision about whether and how to worship."

Read more at the source above.

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