From Jsonline:" A Wisconsin federal judge on Thursday found the National Day of Prayer unconstitutional, saying it violates the First Amendment prohibition against laws respecting an establishment of religion.
The decision by U.S. District Judge Barbara B. Crabb of the Western District of Wisconsin was a victory for the Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation.
The group had sued the Bush and later Obama administrations in an effort to block the presidents from making their annual proclamations inviting Americans to set aside a day for prayer or meditation." http://www.jsonline.com/features/religion/91002169.html?commentSubmitted=y&refresh=7479#comments
Barbara Crabb is an activist judge who was put on the Federal Court by Jimmy Carter. She is extremely liberal and is an activist judge.
This case should never made into court. This case pits the judicial branch vs the executive branch. There is no way her ruling can be enforced. Is she going to hold a president in contempt if the president makes a proclamation? Is she going to throw him in jail? How is she even going to stop him from making a proclamation?
And who has been hurt, physically or emotionally when a president has issued a proclamation? Has the proclamation ever been forced on anybody?
This case will be overturned or president's will ignore the ruling.
But it does show that appointing judges to the Federal Court is very important and each appointee needs to be carefully vetted and if they are extreme in their views, left or right, then they ought to be rejected.
Actually, the law forces the proclamation on the President. Crabb didn't rule that such proclamations are unconstitutional; she ruled that it is unconstitutional for Congress to require the President to make them.
ReplyDeleteThen that makes even worse, now she is telling the legislative and the executive branch what to do.
ReplyDeleteNo, she's telling the legislative branch that it can't tell the executive branch what to do. The President is free to proclaim a national day of prayer. Congress cannot force him to do so, however.
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