Court Challenge To Pennsylvania House Of Representatives Legislative Prayer Practices Can Proceed
Church-State Watchdog Group Sponsoring Litigation Welcomes Ruling
Apr 28, 2017
Press Release
A federal court today ruled that a legal challenge to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives’ legislative prayer practice can proceed.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which is sponsoring the litigation along with American Atheists, welcomed the decision in Fields v. Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.
“The Pennsylvania House’s policy of barring people who don’t believe in God from delivering invocations is discriminatory and unconstitutional,” said Alex J. Luchenitser, associate legal director of Americans United. “I’m pleased that we’ll be able to make our case in court.”
The Pennsylvania House has a longstanding practice of opening invocations, which are often delivered by guests from the community. Over the last three years, with assistance from Americans United, nontheists have made repeated requests to take part in that practice. All of those requests were rejected on the basis of the requesters’ beliefs.
https://www.au.org/media/press-releases/challenge-to-pennsylvania-house-of-representatives-legislative-prayer-practices
http://www.au.org/files/PA%20prayer%20ruling%2C%204.28.17.pdf
http://au.org/content/equal-treatment-denied#overlay-context=content/equal-treatment-denied
