Newdow's Inaugural Prayer Lawsuit Snubbed by Bush Team

January 11, 2005

Source: The Washington Times

http://washingtontimes.com/national/20050110-095925-1503r.htm

On January 11, 2005 The Washington Times reported, "a California atheist's lawsuit to prevent Christian clergy from praying in the presidential inauguration should be dismissed because it is a recycled case about an issue that does not violate the U.S. Constitution, attorneys for President Bush said. 'There is no reason to 'reverse course' and abandon a widely accepted, noncontroversial aspect of the inaugural ceremony after over 200 years of this proper solemnization of a national event,' the president's attorneys said in a 65-page response to the suit... Assistant Attorney General Peter D. Keisler, who filed the response Friday, wrote that atheist Michael Newdow, a Sacramento, Calif., doctor and lawyer, filed a similar lawsuit in 2002 that was rejected by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco."