Liberty Counsel Files in Indiana Case, Says Legislative Prayer Part of History
by Allie Martin
April 20, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A Christian law firm is defending the 188-year tradition of opening prayer in the Indiana Legislature. Liberty Counsel says legislative prayer is not unconstitutional and should be permitted.Last year a federal district court ordered the Indiana Legislature to halt the tradition of opening sessions with prayers. The court said if the tradition continued, the prayers had to be non-sectarian. That decision came after a lawsuit by a state resident who was offended by prayers mentioning the name of Jesus Christ.
Now Florida-based Liberty Counsel has filed a brief in the case, arguing that legislative prayer predates the First Amendment. The group's general counsel and president says such prayers are not unconstitutional -- but that efforts to censor them are. Prayer, says Mat Staver, are "part of who we are as Americans."
"What this lower court has done is rule against much of our American history, ruled against the First Amendment, and ruled against common sense," the Liberty Counsel attorney explains. "We're asking the Federal Court of Appeals to reverse this lower-court judge and to rule that legislative prayer -- just like the Supreme Court's already found -- is indeed constitutional."
According to Staver, the case is now on appeal. "It's a very important matter because this has the ability to affect legislative prayers all around the country," he says, adding an optimistic note. "I think when this case, if it does, gets to the United States Supreme Court, with the new makeup of the current Supreme Court, that court will rule soundly in favor of legislative prayer."
The first legislative prayer dates back to at least the Constitutional Convention in 1787. And as recently as 1983, the Supreme Court upheld Nebraska's tradition of legislative prayer. That is why Staver says to eliminate such prayer would be "contrary" to the history of the nation as well as inconsistent with the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
