INDIANAPOLIS — Ministers who open Indiana legislative sessions with prayer must refrain from praying “in the name of Jesus” and from using Christ’s name, a federal judge ruled Nov. 30.
In his 60-page decision, U.S. District Judge David F. Hamilton cited Supreme Court precedent in ordering Speaker of the House Brian Bosma to keep future ministers from using “Christ’s name or title or any other denominational appeal.” The prayers, Hamilton wrote, must be “non-sectarian.” “All [ministers] are free to pray as they wish in their own houses of worship or in other settings,” Hamilton wrote. “The individuals do not have a First Amendment right, however, to use an official platform like the Speaker’s podium at the opening of a House session to express their own religious faiths.”
The lawsuit was brought against Bosma by the Indiana Civil Liberties Union (ICLU) — the Indiana affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union — on behalf of four Indiana citizens. One is a member of the Society of Friends, or Quakers; another is a retired United Methodist minister; and two are Roman Catholic.
The ICLU did not ask that the prayers be discontinued altogether — only that the prayers not be sectarian and include Christ’s name.
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