Texas AG authors brief in defense of prayer

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott (pictured) authored the amici curiae brief that he and a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general filed today with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to defend the constitutionality of prayer during President-elect Barack Obama’s Jan. 20 inauguration.  “Prayers and oaths invoking God have been a staple of inaugural events throughout history, across the country, and at every level of our government,” Abbott wrote in the brief, filed in Newdow, et al. v. Roberts, et al.  The 45 plaintiffs in Newdow, described in their Dec. 30, 2008, complaint as “American ‘Humanists,’ and/or Atheists," allege that by placing the phrase “so help me God,” government, which is supposed to remain neutral, is lending its power to the greatest religious controversy: whether God exists.  The plaintiffs point out in their brief that the oath of office for the president, as set out in Article II Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution, does not include the words “so help me God.”  Abbott writes in the amici brief that President George Washington began the tradition of including the words “so help me God” at the end of the oath in his inauguration.  The plaintiffs argue in their brief that it’s a myth that Washington uttered those words.  But Abbott wrote in the amici brief that the plaintiffs present “not a single legal precedent holding unconstitutional the inclusion of prayer and oaths invoking God during official inauguration ceremonies.”  U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton presides over the case. 
-- Mary Alice Robbins