Mr. Hinrichs and three other individuals filed a lawsuit in 2005 against Indiana House Speaker Bosma because he permitted invited clergy of all faiths to offer prayers according to their own faith traditions. Many of those prayers were offered in Jesus' Name. The four individuals who sued Speaker Bosma (and who were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union) were only concerned about  the prayers offered in Jesus' Name. They claimed in court that it was unconstitutional to use even minimal tax payer money to support sectarian prayers.  In November of 2005, a district court judge declared that prayers in Jesus' Name were an unconstitutional violation of the Establishment Clause and its modern legal principle of separation of church and state.  Speaker Bosma appealed the decision while all opening prayers in the Indiana House of Representatives were suspended.

Yesterday, the Seventh Circuit federal court of appeals (which includes the states of Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin) handed down its decision and the case was rejected on a procedural question.  Although the court was not required to rule directly on the merits of whether prayers in Jesus’ Name are constitutional, this is still a very helpful decision in our ongoing battle to protect public prayer in Jesus' Name. 

The decision in the Hinrichs case is similar to the outcome in the Pledge of Allegiance case in which the U.S. Supreme Court declared that Michael Newdow did not have standing to file his lawsuit because he did not have custody of his daughter, who he claimed was injured by having to listen to the words "under God" in the Pledge.  In the Hinrichs case against the Indiana Speaker, the Seventh Circuit court of appeals ruled that the four individuals who filed the lawsuit lacked standing as taxpayers because  they could not demonstrate that "the legislature has extracted from them tax dollars for the establishment and implementation of a program that violates the Establishment Clause."

Regardless of the legal reason for this victory, the outcome means that prayers in Jesus' Name remain protected speech in Indiana and in most other states in the nation.  The U.S. Supreme Court will ultimately be called upon to decide this question for the entire nation, but yesterday’s victory is an important step in the right direction.  Legislatures in towns, cities, counties, and states across this nation will now be more emboldened to resist threats by the ACLU and continue their own longstanding traditions of legislative prayer.

Legislative bodies have always permitted prayer in Jesus’ Name in America. Here is the final portion of the text of the prayer offered by the Rev. Jacob Duché at the Constitutional Convention on September 7, 1774.

Be Thou present; O God of Wisdom, and direct the councils of this Honorable Assembly: enable them to settle all things on the best and [surest] of foundations: that the scene of blood may be speedily closed: that Order, Harmony and Peace may be effectually restored, and Truth, and Justice, Religion, and Piety prevail and flourish among the people. Preserve the health of their bodies and the vigor of their minds, shower down on them, and the millions they here represent, such temporal Blessings as Thou seest expedient for them in this world, and crown them with everlasting Glory in the world to come.  All this we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ Thy Son and Our Savior. Amen. 

Please continue to pray that legislative prayers—including prayers in Jesus’ Name—will continue to be constitutional in America as they have always been.