Brief to be Filed in Inaugural Prayer Case

As Im writing this Trial Notebook entry this morning, our brief in the Newdow case is at the printer being prepared to be filed at the Supreme Court of the United States.  Two issues are before the Court.  First, Dr. Newdow has requested that Chief Justice William Rehnquist recuse himself from the proceedings because he officially administers the oath.  Part of the oath that the Chief Justice administers includes the phrase so help me God.  Michael Newdow has argued that since the oath of office contains this phrase and is delivered by the Chief Justice, then he should be recused from the proceedings.  The second issue before the Court is the constitutionality of the inclusion of clergy-led invocations and benedictions at the Inaugural Ceremony scheduled for tomorrow.  We expect an order from the Supreme Court either this afternoon or this evening.  In either event, the case is likely to continue because although all of the courts have ruled in our favor thus far, no one has dismissed this lawsuit.  In future mailings, I will give everyone a detailed report on the nature of this ongoing litigation.

I also want to let you know that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has commenced their own petition drive attacking the Presidents efforts in the War on Terrorism and judicial appointments.  Thus far, they have gathered 86,000 names to their petition.  We have our own petition effort going right now on the issue of Inaugural Prayer and will be in a position to show that literally tens of thousands of American citizens from around the country want this time-honored tradition to continue.  There is a lot of power in these petitions in that they show members of the House and Senate the types of support for various initiatives among citizens across the country. 

I mentioned the other day that we just increased our staff here in Washington.  Drew Ryun is now our Director of Governmental Affairs working with Colby May, who is in charge of our Washington, DC, office.  Drew comes to us with extensive experience, including most recently as the Coalitions Director for the Republican National Committee.  Drew will be working on Capitol Hill and with coalition groups around the country to help our efforts here in Washington.  We are also working on some additional major hires for our Washington office and will keep you posted in the days ahead.

We will maintain updates on the website as to the progress in the Newdow case.  If there are any additional developments this morning or this afternoon, they will be posted immediately.