WASHINGTON (ABP) — One of the nation's best-known — and most widely disparaged — crusaders against government-sponsored religion failed in his attempt to prevent prayers by clergy at the Jan. 20 presidential inauguration.
Michael Newdow lost his bid to halt the prayers Jan. 19. He is the atheist made famous when a federal appeals court agreed in 2002 with his argument that recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance with the phrase “under God” in his daughter's California elementary school was unconstitutional.
Without comment, Chief Justice William Rehnquist denied Newdow's appeal of a lower federal court's decision the day prior to the inaugural swearing-in. That appeals court and a lower court had both previously rejected Newdow's argument that the practice of clergy offering invocations and benedictions at the inaugural ceremony violated the First Amendment's ban on government establishment of religion.
Last year, after hearing an appeal of the decision in the “under God” case, the Supreme Court ruled against Newdow on technical grounds. They said he never had legal standing to file the lawsuit on his daughter's behalf, since he did not have legal custody of the child at the time. The decision meant the pledge remained intact and legal to recite in public schools.
However, Newdow and several other California parents who agree with him recently re-filed the lawsuit.
The decision in the inaugural case meant that prayers at the ceremony would be delivered by two ministers with connections to Bush. Luis Leon, rector of St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington, delivered an invocation. Bush sometimes worships at St. John's — located just across Lafayette Park from the White House and known as the “Church of the Presidents” — on the rare Sundays he spends in Washington.
Kirbyjon Caldwell, pastor of Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston and a friend of Bush's from his Texas days, delivered the benediction.