National Day of Prayer upheld by 7th Circuit

WASHINGTON (BP)--A federal appeals court reversed April 14 a 2010 ruling that had invalidated the National Day of Prayer.

A three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago struck down in a unanimous decision federal judge Barbara Crabb's opinion that a law establishing a day for the observance was unconstitutional. The appellate ruling came almost one year to the day of Crabb's controversial ruling.

Last year's 66-page decision by the judge from Wisconsin's Western District had threatened a tradition as old as the American republic and a specific observance in effect for nearly 60 years. Congress passed a resolution in 1952 calling on the president to establish the National Day of Prayer as an annual event, which President Truman initiated the same year and which presidents since have recognized with proclamations. In 1988, Congress amended the law to set the first Thursday of May for its observance.

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