Liberty Institute Files Brief Supporting National Day of Prayer, Alliance of Top State and National Policy Leaders Demands Reversal of Revisionist Opinion

CHICAGO, July 7 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, Liberty Institute filed an amicus brief in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in support of the National Day of Prayer in Freedom from Religion Foundation v. Obama.  Among those Liberty Institute represents in the brief include Dr. James Dobson, the Family Research Council (FRC), Focus on the Family Action (Citizenlink), the American Civil Rights Union (ACRU), Let Freedom Ring, and Liberty Counsel, along with 28 family policy councils located in states nationwide.

"In her decision to strike down the National Day of Prayer, Judge Barbara Crabb attempted to undo two hundred years of American history," said Kelly Shackelford, president/CEO of Liberty Institute.  "The decision below was an attack upon our heritage and the religious freedom upon which our nation was founded.  This outrageous decision must be overturned."

When Congress passed a statute in 1952 calling for the President to issue a proclamation designating the National Day of Prayer, it memorialized the virtually unbroken tradition of Presidents from Washington to Truman who designated a day of prayer.  

On April 15, U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb ruled that the federal government's observation of prayer is unconstitutional, despite numerous rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court that protect long-standing traditions of religious invocations.  Liberty Institute's brief argues that not only is the National Day of Prayer constitutional, but that Judge Crabb's ruling establishes active hostility to religion and must be reversed.

"Prayer is the underpinning of this country that makes it great. I am proud to file this brief along with so many wonderful groups.  Our nation has a rich history of Presidential proclamations for prayer and thanksgiving, and we must not allow revisionist history to dilute that heritage and freedom," said Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family and head of Family Talk with Dr. James Dobson.

"Since the conception of our nation, Americans have enjoyed religious freedom and the right to gather voluntarily for prayer," said Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Council Action.  "Judge Barbara Crabb's ruling squelches the religious freedom our Founding Fathers chose to protect in the Constitution and advances an activist agenda that is hostile toward religion in public life."

View the brief online at http://tinyurl.com/2837gj5.

Liberty Institute is a public policy and non-profit legal firm dedicated to protecting freedoms and strengthening families.

For more information, visit www.libertyinstitute.org.

SOURCE Liberty Institute