Judge Roy Moore and Foundation for Moral Law Applaud Decision by 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in Tangipahoa Parish School Board Prayer Case

July 26, 2007

Judge Roy Moore and the Foundation for Moral Law are happy with the decision of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in Doe v. Tangipahoa Parish School District involving school board prayer which concluded the plaintiffs lacked standing in the case. The decision in the long-running case means that the Tangipahoa Parish School District in Louisiana , which has been sued several times by the ACLU for its repeated acknowledgments of God, will not be punished for prayers made at the beginning of school board meetings, some of which referenced Jesus. The opinion written by Chief Judge Edith Jones concluded that there was no evidence in the record establishing that the plaintiffs were present at school board meetings for the challenged prayers and thus they could not claim they were legally harmed by the prayers.

Judge Moore commented: "We're pleased that the 5th Circuit recognized that plaintiffs in these kinds of cases are often nothing more than proxies for the ACLU's radical anti-religion agenda. It is high time more federal courts concluded that merely being offended by public references to God is not a legitimate violation of constitutional rights."

In its amicus curiae brief , the Foundation argued that by deciding Establishment Clause cases according to invented judicial tests like the Lemon test, endorsement test, and coercion test, the courts have departed from the original and correct interpretation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The words of the Establishment Clause prohibit only a "law respecting an establishment of religion." A prayer offered at a school board meeting is not a "law" at all, nor is it anything like an "establishment of religion," and is therefore not unconstitutional.

The Foundation for Moral Law, a national non-profit legal organization, is located in Montgomery, Alabama, and is dedicated to restoring the knowledge of God in law and government through two methods: Litigation relating to moral issues and religious liberty cases; and Education consisting of forums for the public and pastors' seminars.

For more information about the Foundation for Moral Law, please visit www.morallaw.org.