Thousands Sign Petition to Support Inaugural Prayer
The petition supplements the American Center for Law and Justice's amicus brief against an atheist's attempt to remove the 200-year tradition of the inaugural prayer from American history
Thousands have already signed a petition combating atheist Michael Newdow's lawsuit to ban the inaugural prayer and all religious expressions, by Tuesday, January 11, 2004.
The petition, put out by The American Center for Law and Justice - a public interest law firm dedicated to protecting religious expressions, supplements the ACLJ's amicus brief against Newdow's attempt to remove the 200-year tradition of the inaugural prayer and the placing of the president's hands on the Bible while swearing "So help me God."
The ACLJ filed an amicus brief late Friday night, only hours after Newdow filed his challenge. Newdow's new case marks his second attempt to remove references to God from American history. Last year, Newdow unsuccessfully tried to ban the pledge of allegiance in public schools because he objected to the phrase, "under God."
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Chief council for the ACLJ, Jay Sekulow reported that the ACLJ is in the district court in Washington, D.C. fighting Newdow's new challenge. The amicus brief filed calls "Newdow’s challenge a “personal crusade” that “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.” When asked during the ACLJ broadcast about the strong language in the brief, Sekulow answered that it was purposely so, because the nation should take the case seriously. The extremely close date of the inaugural ceremony, Jan. 20th, calls for urgency in this situation.
Sekulow offers his opinion of the possible outcome from the Supreme Court: Not only is history supportive of a favorable decision from the justice system, but the Supreme Court has acknowledged in previous cases that what they call ceremonial deism, is constitutional, he said.
"But there are a number of justices that probably would say that it's not, so we're not taking it for granted," Sekulow added.
However, the biggest concern for Sekulow is not an unfavorable legal outcome, but that there might be psychological intimidation of religious expression.
"Here's my concern, you don't want these prayers diluted. You don't want the minister to go up and say, 'With this lawsuit out there, I don't want to pray in Jesus' name. I'll change something; change the nature of what I was going to say.' It's not just the legal aspect but the psychological aspect where people are intimidation," he said.
The concern is that "people should not be intimidated for their religious expression during inaugural ceremony."
"This is part of our time honored tradition. The court said it would be ironic indeed if a land founded by religious refugees would sever the ties that bind the country even today," Sekulow added.
And on this context, the ACLJ is trying to mobilize tens of thousands of people to flood Capitol Hill with massive numbers of petitions and phone calls to make sure no one feels intimidated.
According to the ACLU some 3,486 people signed onto their petition within one day.
The case is set to be heard on Thursday, and the expedited nature of this case could push the case through the judicial system and reach the Supreme Court as early as next Monday. The inaugural ceremony is on Jan. 20th.
To sign onto the "Petition to Preserve the Inaugural Prayer," visit: www.aclj.org, or call: 877-989-2255.
The following is the full text for the Petition to Preserve the Inaugural Prayer:
Petition to Preserve the Inaugural Prayer
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid
All members of the United States Senate
Every President since George Washington has invoked assistance from God and asked for the blessing of the nation and its people. The inaugural prayer is part of our history and heritage of this country.
We stand with the American Center for Law and Justice in its legal efforts to support the Department of Justice as it defends the constitutionality of the inaugural prayer in this latest legal challenge.
We also call on the leadership of the U.S. Senate — which has authority to control the inaugural ceremony itself — to stand firm and permit the expression of prayer when President Bush takes the oath of office on January 20th.
The American Center for Law and Justice is a public interest law firm dedicated to the concept that freedom and democracy are God given inalienable rights that must be protected both domestically and internationally and are committed to constitutional freedoms in accordance with justice as outlined in Scripture.
