pinqy
Gold Member
Not according to the federal court so far,
National Day of Prayer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
You're talking about National Day of Prayer, not "National CHRISTIAN Prayer. There is enough of a difference to be important.
good point, but the end result is your more militant atheists would oppose both.
Militant atheists like Thomas Jefferson, who refused to call for a day of Prayer or Thanksgiving because he believed it to be contrary to the 1st Ammendment?
The panel of the Seventh District dismissed the case on the grounds that the plaintiffs lacked standing. I'm not convinced that was the right call.
However, since a day of Prayer or Thanksgiving goes back to Washington, it's pretty firmly entrenched in US History and precedent. And since the wording fo the Day of Prayer is general in nature and includes the phrase "...to pray, or otherwise give thanks, in accordance with their own faiths or consciences..." it pretty much passes establishment clause muster.