CHICAGO — An appeals court panel apparently has given the OK for prayers mentioning Jesus’ name in the Indiana state Legislature to return, tossing out a lawsuit Oct. 30 that had garnered national attention two years ago when the prayers were ruled unconstitutional.
The 2–1 decision by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is a victory for social conservatives, although the justices avoided dealing directly with whether the prayers violate the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution as the lower court had ruled.
Instead the majority ruled that the four Indiana residents who brought the lawsuit lacked standing because they had “not shown that the legislature has extracted from them tax dollars for the establishment and implantation” of a program that supposedly violates the Establishment Clause.
The lawsuit was brought against the speaker of the state House of Representatives by the Indiana affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, which won the initial round in November 2005 when U.S. District Judge David F. Hamilton ruled prayers must be “non-sectarian” and must not mention “Christ’s name or title or any other denominational appeal.” Later Hamilton clarified the ruling and said it applied to all sectarian prayers, not just those mentioning Christ.
But the 7th Circuit Court panel ruled that the four citizens did not have standing to bring the case, in part because the House prayer program “is not mandated by statute” (that is, a legislative-passed law) but is simply a rule the House has adopted on its own. Previous Supreme Court cases — including this year’s ruling in Hein v. Freedom from Religion Foundation — allow for such a distinction, the majority said.
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