A federal judge in Wisconsin ruled the National Day of Prayer unconstitutional Thursday, saying the day amounts to a call for religious action.
U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb wrote that the government can no more enact laws supporting a day of prayer than it can encourage citizens to fast during Ramadan, attend a synagogue or practice magic.
"In fact, it is because the nature of prayer is so personal and can have such a powerful effect on a community that the government may not use its authority to try to influence an individual's decision whether and when to pray," Crabb wrote.
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From TfK's "Duh!" department, we learn via PZ that a federal judge did the only sensible thing possible about the National Day of Prayer. In a suit filed by the Freedom From Religion Foundation:
A federal judge in Wisconsin ruled the National Day of Prayer unconstitutional Thursday, saying the day…
The Freedom From Religion Foundation has won a significant court case: the National Day of Prayer has been declared unconstitutional. The judge made a cautious and conservative judgment, but you know the right-wing is going to freak out.
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Jordan Lorence, the ADF attorney who wrote the post on judicial activism that I replied to the other day has responded. He doesn't link to the response or mention me at all, but I assume it's my post he's responding to because my post was titled "ADF's Double Talk on Judicial Activism" and his…
Vacation time! While Orac is off in London recharging his circuits and contemplating the linguistic tricks of limericks and jokes or the glory of black holes, he's rerunning some old stuff from his original Blogspot blog. This particular post first appeared on October 19, 2005. Enjoy!
Somehow I…
And this has no effect on the National Day of Reason.
Cue a howling Tea Party protest in 5... 4...
In thanks for this victory, we bow our heads and pray...
oh wait, lets par-tay and munch babies instead!
Although a combined "day of prayer, fasting, going to shul, practicing magic or not doing anything spiritual at all" might be allowable.
It will be interesting to see whether the Justice Department is going to appeal the ruling - seems (according to the linked article) that all the conservative legal groups have come up with in opposition is just: "but it's a tradition!", which probably amounts to diddly/squat in legal terms.
And apparently the White House doesn't care, they are planning on celebrating it anyway.
Obama is such a mixed bag, it gets really frustrating.
Between this story, Obama letting gay spouses into hospital rooms, and an increased budget for NASA, let this Canadian say I like some of the directions the U.S. is headed in again.
Remember: It is not as though Obama was heading away from gay rights and is now heading back in the right direction. He was giving the liberals the old hand-clam and telling us to quieten down a bit while he does this one thing, giving conservatives the steady unblinking evil eye and holding his cards in close on several issues, while kicking along the proverbial can (health care) until it got done.
Jimmy carter, southern cracker white guy, was able to sign an executive order to provide amnesty to all the long haired hippie commie freak draft dodgers hiding in lumberjack shacks up in Canaidahoovia as his very first act seconds after walking off the podium for his inauguration. Big scary black guy socialist Obama has to do the outrageous thing with a different strategy.
As many of us have been saying all along. Just sayin'. Still.
(I hope.)