Judge Nixes Atheist’s Attempt To Ban Prayer At GWB Inaugration
This ruling against an atheist who wanted to ban George Bush putting his hand on a Bible and a prayer at the January 20th inauguration did not come as any surprise — since if the atheist was right our former U.S. Presidents were ignoramuses:
An atheist who tried to remove "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance lost a bid Friday to bar the saying of a Christian prayer at President Bush’s inauguration.
U.S. District Judge John Bates said Michael Newdow’s claim should be denied because he already had filed and lost a similar lawsuit at a federal appeals court in California last year.
Bates also said Newdow had no legal standing to pursue his claim. Even if Newdow could show he had suffered injury because he was offended in hearing the prayer, Bates said the court did not have authority to stop the president from inviting clergy to give a religious prayer at the ceremony.
"The court’s grave concerns about its power to issue an injunction against the president, which is the only method of redressing Newdow’s alleged injuries, places in peril Newdow’s standing to bring this action," Bates wrote in his 50-page opinion.
Newdow argued that saying a Christian prayer at the Jan. 20 ceremony would violate the Constitution by forcing him to accept unwanted religious beliefs.
Attorneys representing Bush and his inaugural committee argued that prayers have been widely accepted at inaugurals for more than 200 years and that Bush’s decision to have a minister recite the invocation was a personal choice the court had no power to prevent.
Newdow gained widespread publicity two years ago after winning his pledge case before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, which ruled that public schools violated the separation of church and state by having students mention God.
Read this take on this case (I read everything this guy writes and every morning I’m thankful he is on the face of this earth).
But there is also ANOTHER view which is well-expressed here.
