ADF to cities, towns: Threats over Nat'l Day of Prayer are bogus
ADF offers free legal counsel to municipalities in wake of atheist group’s threats over prayer events
ADF attorney sound bite: Brett Harvey
ADF is offering free legal advice and possible representation to any local governments threatened for honoring the National Day of Prayer, issuing their own prayer proclamations, or simply asking citizens to voluntarily pray for their communities and nation.
“Public officials should be able to recognize public prayer activities just as America’s founders did,” said ADF Senior Counsel Brett Harvey. “The Freedom From Religion Foundation and other groups like them routinely issue legal threats to cities and towns in their quest to scrub the public square free of any trace of religion. The courts have repeatedly disagreed with them because the Constitution requires no such thing.”
“As the U.S. Supreme Court has recently stated, ‘The Constitution does not oblige government to avoid any public acknowledgment of religion’s role in society,’” Harvey added.
ADF has long defended the National Day of Prayer, including its defense of the National Day of Prayer Task Force and former spokesperson Shirley Dobson in the lawsuit Freedom From Religion Foundation v. Obama. ADF succeeded in having Dobson dismissed from the lawsuit at the district court level before filing a friend-of-the court brief on behalf of the task force at the appellate court level. Last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit rejected FFRF’s lawsuit and allowed the National Day of Prayer to continue.
In 1952, President Harry Truman signed into law a joint resolution by Congress to set aside an annual National Day of Prayer. Congress amended the law in 1988, which was signed by President Ronald Reagan, specifying that the annual event would be observed on “the first Thursday in May each year.” In a proclamation issued Tuesday, President Barack Obama officially recognized May 3 as the 2012 National Day of Prayer.
ADF is a legal alliance of Christian attorneys and like-minded organizations defending the right of people to freely live out their faith. Launched in 1994, ADF employs a unique combination of strategy, training, funding, and litigation to protect and preserve religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family.
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ABOUT Brett Harvey
Brett Harvey serves as senior counsel and vice president of allied legal affairs with Alliance Defending Freedom. He has assisted state and local governments on issues involving public invocations and religious expression, and he has successfully represented clients in defense of their First Amendment freedoms and the right to life. Harvey and the Allied Legal Affairs team he leads focus on recruitment, professional engagement, and integration of allies into ADF’s advocacy efforts, including coordinating amicus efforts at state supreme courts, circuit courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Harvey earned his J.D. from the Walter F. George School of Law at Mercer University in Georgia in 1995. He is admitted to the bar in the states of Georgia, Florida, Colorado, and Arizona. Harvey has also been admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court; the U.S. Courts of Appeal for the 6th, 9th, 10th, and 11th Circuits; and the U.S. District Court in Colorado. He joined Alliance Defending Freedom in 2000 and has been practicing law since 1995.