The National Day of Prayer in the USA (NDP)

Is the legislation constitutional?

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Constitutionality of the NDP law:

The 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court, guarantees that:

These two principles are continuously in a state of creative tension. Many Americans feel that prayer forms part of their religious expression; thus they want their children to pray in school, their school board to pray before it holds a meeting, law courts to post the 10 Commandments, the Federal government to proclaim a NDP, etc. Others, including the U.S. Supreme Court feel that a wall of separation must be maintained between religion and the government and its agencies.

The Supreme Court has issued many decisions in recent years which clarify the range of allowable government involvement in religion. The act which proclaims the National Day of Prayer might be argued to be unconstitutional for six reasons. It promotes the concepts that:

1. Having a theistic religious faith is more valid than following a secular path.
2. Religions which require belief in a personal God are more valid than other religions which do not (e.g. the faiths of Buddhists, Deists, and most followers of the Unitarian Universalist Association who do not believe in the existence of a deity who answers prayers.)
3. God exists.
4. There is only one God.
5. God is male.
6. God hears and responds to human prayer.

To our knowledge, there has never been a constitutional challenge to this law.

Of course, if the law were to be ruled invalid by the courts, religious freedom in the U.S. would not be impacted in the slightest:

The U.S. constitution appears to prohibit:

The "American Center for Law and Justice" has prepared a special bulletin in anticipation of restrictions by schools and government bodies of NDP observances. ₁ Section VI of that bulletin appears to contain some errors. It states that students are free to engage in prayer and other religious speech at any time and location within the school, as long as it does not interfere with school discipline. That would imply that student initiated spoken prayer in the classroom is constitutionally permitted. It is not. 

Reference:

This information source was used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlink is not necessarily still valid today.

1. "Special Bulletin: National Day of Prayer," The American Center for Law and Justice, at: http://www.aclj.org/

Copyright © 1999 to 2005 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally published: 1999-MAY-5
Most recent update: 2005-MAY-16
Author: B.A. Robinson