A federal appeals court has ruled that the National Day of Prayer is legitimate, ordering that a lawsuit claiming the event is unconstitutional be dismissed.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation had filed the suit and U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb had ruled the federal government's observation of prayer unconstitutional, in spite of numerous U.S. Supreme Court rulings protecting religious invocations. That ruling was taken to the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago where, as Liberty Institute attorney Jeff Mateer explains, the panel ruled Thursday that the atheist organization does not have legal standing to bring a challenge to the President's proclamation declaring a National Day of Prayer.
What the 7th Circuit [also] held was that in order for a plaintiff to bring a lawsuit challenging a law, they have to have sustained a real legal injury. They must have been harmed in some way. And the Foundation, was found to not be suffering.
Mateer also says the decision goes beyond the National Day of Prayer and the presidential proclamation. "What this decision means is that communities throughout our country that have National Day of Prayer ceremonies -- that those are perfectly constitutional, that they can proceed," says the attorney.
Liberty Institue says it "applaud[s] the Seventh Circuit's dismissal of this desperate attempt to erase our country's rich history of calling for prayer," labeling it another indication of attempts to "censor religious expression in the public arena."
This year's solemn event is May 5.
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