Sixty-three (63) members of the House and four senators, Republicans and Democrats, have weighed in on the legal case to defend the constitutionality of the National Day of Prayer.
People from across the nation took part in the 2010 National Day of Prayer event in the caucus room of the Cannon House Office building, which included prayers for all branches of government.
The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) filed an amicus (friend of the court) brief Thursday on behalf of the congressmen, members of the Congressional Prayer Caucus, in the case of Freedom From Religion Foundation v. Obama, in which a Wisconsin federal district court declared unconstitutional the statute directing the president to declare the annual observance of the National Day of Prayer.
On April 15, U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb in Madison, Wis., ruled in favor of the Freedom From Religion Foundation that the National Day of Prayer violated the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment. The Justice Department has appealed the case to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago.
"(The ACLJ is) representing Democrats, Republicans, some moderate, some conservative, senators, who are signing on because the National Day of Prayer has been part of our congressional act(ion) -- an act of the president -- since the 1950s, officially," Jordan Sekulow, attorney at the ACLJ told CNNews.com.
Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation and a named plaintiff in the case, told CNSNews.com that the support from members of Congress "shows the harm" of the National Day of Prayer law and that the government is working "hand-in-glove with Christian, right-wing and evangelical organizations."
"I think (the members' support) is very disheartening but I think that, actually, they are proving our case. I think that they are elected officials working in concert with openly fundamentalist Christian organizations that are hostile to the separation of church and state and are basically bureaucratic in nature," Gaylor said.
Gaylor said that support from Congress members supports her group's cause.
"Organizations are using this unconstitutional act of Congress to further their own names. The fact that they are working in concert with an amicus brief is exactly the issue, exactly the problem. I think that it might make our case for us," Gaylor said.
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SOURCE: CNS News
Nick Dean
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