National Day of Prayer

Today, as proclaimed by Barack Obama under law and tradition since 1952, is a National Day of Prayer. A federal judge recently declared the day unconstitutional due to the establishment clause of the First Amendment, which states that Congress won't make a law supporting any religion. 

Days such as the National Day of Jews and National Day of Pastafestrians would thus be unconstitutional due to this. However, prayer is not a religion. In fact, it's a practice across many different religions. Congress and the president have not violated the establishment clause. 

However, if you look through your Supreme Court cases, you'll find Lemon v. Kurtzman, which established the Lemon test. It states laws must have a secular purpose, as well as two other things I forget. The law establishing the National Day of Prayer does not (oh I just remembered another criteria: laws can't support or supress any religions) have a secular purpose, and thus, following the precedent of Lemon v. Kurtzman, is not an acceptable law. 

Since I suspect most of the people who vehemently dislike the ruling that the National Day of Prayer are also believers in judicial restraint, I may have just put many a person in a predicament. 







If they actually were to read this.