Is Praying in Public a Right? Keep an Eye On This Story.

According to news stories, a group of Christian school students were visiting Washington, D.C. on May 5, 2010. While they were in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building, the gathered in a circle to pray. An official told them what there were doing was illegal and they would have to move on. The children were from Arizona, a junior high school American History class at Wickenburg Christian Academy.

The Marshal of the Court said they will look into to the matter, and that "the Court does not have a policy prohibiting prayer." Well, one would hope not.

The Alliance Defense Fund is helping by representing the students' rights.

When our Founders wrote the Constitution, they were well aware of the desire of the people to have freedom of religion. That is a reason some of our earliest settlers came here. There was debate during the Constitutional Convention about whether we needed the Bill of Rights, because all those 10 amendments did was emphasize what the Constitution already said. Do we need to say that Congress can make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion? "No," some said, because the Constitution gave Congress no rights in that area in the first place. Nevertheless, the amendment was added to clarify what Congress may not do. But does it matter that Congress supposedly may not make such a law if officials assume they have the right to push their own ideas of enforcement on helpless students?

DISCLAIMER: this story is not well filled out yet. Perhaps it was all a misunderstanding or is being reported incorrectly. We shall watch and see what develops. But the actions reported are not at all hard to believe, given other documented examples already mentioned in various posts on this blog.

Read the story here:
Students Ordered to Stop Praying Outside Supreme Court Building