Federal judge upholds ban on prayer in Indiana House of Representatives

A federal court judge on Wednesday denied a request to amend his ruling banning sectarian prayer in the Indiana House of Representatives, clearing the way for an appeal to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago.

U.S. District Judge David Hamilton rejected arguments by House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, that Hamilton's ruling was too vague to enforce.

And Hamilton issued a warning:

"If the speaker or those offering prayers seek to evade the injunction through indirect but well understood expressions of specifically Christian beliefs, the audience, the public, and the court will be able to see what is happening. In that unlikely event, the court will be able to take appropriate measures to enforce" the injunction.

Hamilton earlier this month found that the House practice of offering a prayer at the start of each day's session breached the clause of the U.S. Constitution that bars the government establishment of religion. The House prayers, he ruled, were overwhelmingly Christian in content and amounted to the advancement of one religion over others. The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit brought by the Indiana Civil Liberties Union.



http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051229/NEWS02/512290459

NOT FOR ME

SHOUTED DARTH BENEDICT

Indiana has dozens of other, more pressing issues - unemployment, budget deficits, crime increases, failing schools, an idiot Governor, etc.
Why does Bosma insist of making this a priority? Who's paying him to keep fighting on this? Hey - if God's got his checkbook out for Brian, then have him cut a check to the State, 'cause we're broke.
Another example of small-minded Indiana idiots making the rest of us look bad. I am SO embarrassed to be a Hoosier! Guess it's time to cut another donation check to the ICLU...

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Vaya Con Dios

and then things just get better!


:sarcasm:

In a spirited duel over prayer, members of the Indiana state House are at odds with a federal judge who ruled that the daily invocation appeals too often to Jesus Christ and a Christian god.

The "systematically sectarian" prayers, U.S. District Judge David F. Hamilton concluded, are barred by the Constitution, which forbids the government to show preference for any religious denomination. He ordered the House to avoid mentioning Christ in the formal benedictions.

.......

Terry Goodin, a Democrat who rejects Hamilton's order, is among at least two dozen House members who have asked to give Wednesday's prayer. He said he would "absolutely" speak Christ's name if given the chance.

"Really, who do you pray to? If you're offering up a prayer, you're praying to a deity. You don't offer prayers to just an open space," Goodin said. "I will give the same type of prayer that's been given for 100 years. I won't change my words because of someone in the judicial branch who tells me I must."



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/31/AR2005123100723.html

A federal judge can issue any ruling he wants (and I support his ruling). But what is supposed to happen next? The county sheriff is going to arrest the prayer leaders? That won't happen because an overwhelming majority of people in Indiana support the prayers as they are written, and county sheriffs are elected. I don't know about you, but there us something that would make me nervous about having police storm a building to stop people from praying.

Just like the Supreme Court barred prayers over the loudspeaker at public high school football games, a ruling that came from a case out of Texas. I can personally tell you that these prayers still go on in Texas, over public loudspeakers, at many public high school football games. The cops just stand by and do nothing, and sometimes they join in the prayers too.

What are you going to do?

of law continues to shrivel. The facade gets thinner and thinner.

in the future, and let our own national high priests make the decisions about which judges to appoint.





Our new Fundie National Judicial Panel

They only answer to a Higher Power. They claim their Higher Power is omnipotent, but apparently it needs to be constantly defended by a parade of proselytizing, headline-hungry morons.