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Atheist unable to block Bush inauguration blessing
Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Saturday, January 15, 2005
Washington – A federal judge rejected Sacramento-area atheist Michael Newdow’s effort to block the recitation of Christian prayers at President Bush’s inauguration next week, ruling Friday that a religious blessing does not violate the Constitution’s prohibition against government endorsements of religion.
U.S. District Court Judge John Bates for the District of Columbia found that the two prayers planned for Thursday’s swearing-in were part of a long tradition of prayers and other religious references dating back to the first inauguration of President George Washington in 1789.
Newdow, who became a highly publicized figure for his efforts to strip “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance, argued that allowing a Christian prayer at the public event at the U.S. Capitol violated the First Amendment, which bars the government from establishing an official religion or favoring one religion over another.
As an atheist, Newdow said allowing a sectarian prayer made him feel like a “second-class citizen” and a “political outsider,” adding that he should be able to attend one of the nation’s most important ceremonies without being subjected to religious views he does not support.
But Bates, a Bush appointee, ruled that Newdow’s claim of harm was “less than compelling” and said barring clergy-led prayers would infringe on the president’s ability to choose the speakers at his inauguration.
“An injunction would impact the speech and other interests of the president in including prayer as part of a ceremonial event renewing his efforts in leading this nation,” Bates wrote. “After all, each inaugural ceremony is quite personal to the president honored, even down to the choice of clergy participating.”
Newdow, who was not immediately available for comment, told The Chronicle this week that he was expecting to lose and was already preparing his appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
Newdow lost a similar case in 2003 after the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that he did not suffer “a sufficiently concrete and specific injury” when he objected to the prayers at Bush’s first inauguration in 2001.
The Elk Grove resident argued that his case was different this year, because he had a ticket to attend the inauguration. Being confronted with Christian prayers in person would be an even more grievous offense than the one he suffered while watching the inauguration on TV in 2001, he said.
“The effect of the (clergy’s) purely religious words was for Christian Americans to perceive them as an endorsement of their Christianity, and for non-Christian Americans … to perceive the pledge as a disapproval of their non-Christianity,” Newdow argued in the case.
But the judge ruled that there was no major difference between seeing the event live or on TV and that Newdow had failed to show that the harm he might suffer was reason enough for the court to take the extraordinary step of barring prayers at the ceremony.
Bush is planning to have an invocation by Rev. Luis Leon, an Episcopal minister at St. John’s Church in Washington, and a benediction by Pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell, a Methodist minister from Houston and friend of the Bush family who also spoke at the 2001 inauguration.
In his ruling, Bates noted that every inauguration since 1937 had featured at least two prayers by clergy members invited by the president. The prayers have mostly been given by Christian clergy, although on at least seven occasions a Jewish rabbi was invited to speak, most recently at Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration.
Washington had religious references at both of his inaugurations. He attended St. Paul’s Chapel after his first inauguration, and a prayer was read in the Senate chambers at his second swearing-in in 1793. Ellen Johnson, president of the group American Atheists, said the ruling Friday was a disappointment for the roughly 30 million Americans who are not religious and who may be offended by hearing prayers at the inauguration.
Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Saturday, January 15, 2005
Washington – A federal judge rejected Sacramento-area atheist Michael Newdow’s effort to block the recitation of Christian prayers at President Bush’s inauguration next week, ruling Friday that a religious blessing does not violate the Constitution’s prohibition against government endorsements of religion.
U.S. District Court Judge John Bates for the District of Columbia found that the two prayers planned for Thursday’s swearing-in were part of a long tradition of prayers and other religious references dating back to the first inauguration of President George Washington in 1789.
Newdow, who became a highly publicized figure for his efforts to strip “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance, argued that allowing a Christian prayer at the public event at the U.S. Capitol violated the First Amendment, which bars the government from establishing an official religion or favoring one religion over another.
As an atheist, Newdow said allowing a sectarian prayer made him feel like a “second-class citizen” and a “political outsider,” adding that he should be able to attend one of the nation’s most important ceremonies without being subjected to religious views he does not support.
But Bates, a Bush appointee, ruled that Newdow’s claim of harm was “less than compelling” and said barring clergy-led prayers would infringe on the president’s ability to choose the speakers at his inauguration.
“An injunction would impact the speech and other interests of the president in including prayer as part of a ceremonial event renewing his efforts in leading this nation,” Bates wrote. “After all, each inaugural ceremony is quite personal to the president honored, even down to the choice of clergy participating.”
Newdow, who was not immediately available for comment, told The Chronicle this week that he was expecting to lose and was already preparing his appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
Newdow lost a similar case in 2003 after the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that he did not suffer “a sufficiently concrete and specific injury” when he objected to the prayers at Bush’s first inauguration in 2001.
The Elk Grove resident argued that his case was different this year, because he had a ticket to attend the inauguration. Being confronted with Christian prayers in person would be an even more grievous offense than the one he suffered while watching the inauguration on TV in 2001, he said.
“The effect of the (clergy’s) purely religious words was for Christian Americans to perceive them as an endorsement of their Christianity, and for non-Christian Americans … to perceive the pledge as a disapproval of their non-Christianity,” Newdow argued in the case.
But the judge ruled that there was no major difference between seeing the event live or on TV and that Newdow had failed to show that the harm he might suffer was reason enough for the court to take the extraordinary step of barring prayers at the ceremony.
Bush is planning to have an invocation by Rev. Luis Leon, an Episcopal minister at St. John’s Church in Washington, and a benediction by Pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell, a Methodist minister from Houston and friend of the Bush family who also spoke at the 2001 inauguration.
In his ruling, Bates noted that every inauguration since 1937 had featured at least two prayers by clergy members invited by the president. The prayers have mostly been given by Christian clergy, although on at least seven occasions a Jewish rabbi was invited to speak, most recently at Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration.
Washington had religious references at both of his inaugurations. He attended St. Paul’s Chapel after his first inauguration, and a prayer was read in the Senate chambers at his second swearing-in in 1793. Ellen Johnson, president of the group American Atheists, said the ruling Friday was a disappointment for the roughly 30 million Americans who are not religious and who may be offended by hearing prayers at the inauguration.