ACLJ Asks Federal Court to Reject Atheist Lawsuit Challenging Inaugural Prayer

“This is once again a flawed attempt to purge all religious references and observances from American public life.” - Jay Sekulow, ACLJ Chief Counsel

WASHINGTON, Jan. 14, 2009—Responding to a lawsuit filed by atheist Michael Newdow, the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) is asking a federal court to support the long-standing tradition of using the phrase, "So help me God," when the president accepts the oath of office-and the inclusion of prayer at the inauguration ceremony.

 

The ACLJ submitted its amicus brief to U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia late Tuesday urging the court to reject the Newdow's lawsuit.

 

"The fact is that this country has a long history of invoking God at inaugural events.  Such references are not only appropriate, but constitutional as well," said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the ACLJ.  "This legal challenge is clearly misplaced and we're hopeful it will be rejected by the court."

 

In its brief available online at www.aclj.org, the ACLJ contends:  "This personal crusade serves no purpose other than to waste judicial resources at a time in our Nation's history when those resources are needed in cases involving real threats to American liberties."

 

The ACLJ brief also notes that Newdow's targeting of religious expression in the federal government is particularly ill-considered given the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Marsh v. Chambers, 463 U.S. 783 (1983). 

 

The brief adds that references to God at inaugurations date back to the very origins of this country:  "In his first inaugural address, President Washington proclaimed that ‘no people can be bound to knowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States,' because ‘every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency.'  (Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States, S. Doc. No. 10, 101^st Cong., 1^st Sess. 2 (1989).)  Thus, the Inauguration of the man who was ‘first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen,' was blessed with an invocation of Divine Aid by the very Chief Executive.  Every subsequent Inaugural has likewise afforded the Chief Executive the opportunity to expressly invoke Divine Aid, or to acknowledge the working of the Divine Hands in the enterprise that is this great Nation."

 

Newdow has twice lost claims challenging inaugural prayer in the past.  

 

Led by Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow, the American Center for Law and Justice focuses on constitutional law and is based in Washington, D.C.  The ACLJ is online at www.aclj.org.

 

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