OneNewsNow.com - Prayer Ruling 'Flawed'

by Charlie Butts, OneNewsNow

You can listen to the report here.

At least one Christian legal firm says yesterday's ruling on the National Day of Prayer is flawed and likely will be overturned.
 
On Thursday in Wisconsin, U.S. Federal Judge Barbara Crabb ruled in favor of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which argued that the government setting aside a day of prayer violates the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Specifically, FFRF is challenging the constitutionality of a 1988 federal law giving the president of the United States the authority to designate the first Thursday in May as a National Day of Prayer.
 
In her ruling, Crabb wrote that government involvement in prayer is constitutional only as long as it does not call for religious action, which the prayer day does.
 
"It goes beyond mere 'acknowledgment' of religion because its sole purpose is to encourage all citizens to engage in prayer, an inherently religious exercise that serves no secular function in this context," the judge wrote. "In this instance, the government has taken sides on a matter that must be left to individual conscience."
 
Attorney Jordan Sekulow of the American Center for Law & Justice says Crabb's decision is "flawed."
 
"The Establishment Clause is to mandate the federal government from establishing a national church, to say that you have to read a specific Bible or to say a specific prayer," he clarifies. "That's not what's done in this National Day of Prayer Proclamation. Here, we are again just signifying and looking back on our history, respecting our history of the founding of the Judeo-Christian country."
 
Sekulow says the decision will be quickly appealed.
 
"We represented...31 members of Congress [in the case]," says the attorney. "We'll be ready to file our amicus brief to the appeal to the Seventh  Circuit Court of Appeals -- and I'm sure the president and the White House, the executive branch, are getting their appeal ready as well."
 
Meanwhile, the White House has indicated President Obama will go ahead with issuing a proclamation for this year's event, schedule for Thursday, May 6. In her ruling, Judge Crabb indicated this year's day of prayer will go on as planned.