# Federal judge rules National Day of Prayer to be unconstitutional **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 16, 2010, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/federal-judge-rules-national-day-of-prayer-to-be-unconstitutional/536364 "2010-04-16T16:50:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2010, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/federal-judge-rules-national-day-of-prayer-to-be-unconstitutional/536364/21 "2010-04-17T17:10:13Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Here is an illustration. The President says: “My fellow Americans. In accord with federal law, I am proclaiming today to be National Prayer Day. I urge you all to pray. And remember, when you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites – you know, the ones that stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. No, I urge you to go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. Thank you, and good night.” > > Do you follow the distinction now? Probably not what you were trying to address, and easily corrected with a few word changes, but if Obama started saying “pray to your Father…”, he’d be stepping over the line of endorsing a certain religion (or subset of religions) over others. And if he quoted something so close to the text of the Christian Gospels, he’d be out of line, too. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2010, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/federal-judge-rules-national-day-of-prayer-to-be-unconstitutional/536364/22 "2010-04-17T17:14:39Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Probably not what you were trying to address, and easily corrected with a few word changes, but if Obama started saying “pray to your Father…”, he’d be stepping over the line of endorsing a certain religion (or subset of religions) over others. And if he quoted something so close to the text of the Christian Gospels, he’d be out of line, too. Right… but irrelevant to the point I was making, which was to offer a scenario in which the exhortation to pray was not inconsistent with Matt 6:5-6. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/federal-judge-rules-national-day-of-prayer-to-be-unconstitutional/536364/23 "2010-04-18T18:13:56Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Probably not what you were trying to address, and easily corrected with a few word changes, but if Obama started saying “pray to your Father…”, he’d be stepping over the line of endorsing a certain religion (or subset of religions) over others. And if he quoted something so close to the text of the Christian Gospels, he’d be out of line, too. How so? The first amendment is only a limitation on Congress, not the President. He could stand up and encourage everyone to go to the 1st Methodist Church on 12th Street if he wanted to. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/federal-judge-rules-national-day-of-prayer-to-be-unconstitutional/536364/24 "2010-04-18T18:16:27Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > How so? The first amendment is only a limitation on Congress, not the President. He could stand up and encourage everyone to go to the 1st Methodist Church on 12th Street if he wanted to. I don’t think that’s the way the 1st has been interpreted over the years. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/federal-judge-rules-national-day-of-prayer-to-be-unconstitutional/536364/25 "2010-04-18T18:27:51Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > How so? The first amendment is only a limitation on Congress, not the President. He could stand up and encourage everyone to go to the 1st Methodist Church on 12th Street if he wanted to. Ignoring constitutional issues and how the 1st amendment has been interpreted over the years, it would be untoward for a president to make a national statement (as opposed to a personal one) so heavily biased towards one particular religion. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/federal-judge-rules-national-day-of-prayer-to-be-unconstitutional/536364/26 "2010-04-18T19:58:54Z")
The Establishment Clause says that the Federal government (and by extension through the Fourteenth Amendment the states and their political creatures the local governments, school districts, etc.) cannot mandate, coerce, or use peer pressire to coerce, anyone into engaging in a religious practice, or require anyone to do so. That includes the President. He may declare a National Day of Prayer if he so chooses, in exactly the same manner as he may declare a National Eat More Cottage Cheese Day – and with the same amount of legal compulsion, i.e., none. The only two people Barack Obama and GWB could compel to pray were their respective daughters, and that as their father, not as their President. The judge’s ruling is that Congress may not compel the President to declare a National Day of Prayer – and it doesn’t matter whether he personally is in favor of such a day or not; they are not acting within their constitutional powers to require him to do so. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/federal-judge-rules-national-day-of-prayer-to-be-unconstitutional/536364/27 "2010-04-18T22:54:32Z")
Who are the doofs who need a presidential stamp of approval? If you want to pray, pray. Surely your president has enough on his plate already. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/federal-judge-rules-national-day-of-prayer-to-be-unconstitutional/536364.md?page=1)