The Indy Star has an article entitled Daniels: Prayer ruling ‘regrettable’. I agree with Daniels when he says, “the dispute over overtly Christian prayers in the Indiana House would have been better resolved “by private and voluntary agreement.” However, his decision to blame the court for that not happening is silly. Daniels says, “It’s in a long line now of, I think, confusing and sometimes clumsy attempts by the courts to insert themselves into this issue.”
Courts don’t “insert themselves.” Somebody invokes the jurisdiction of the court — in this case a Quaker lobbyist, among others, who felt excluded by the revival-style prayer — the court doesn’t invite itself. Predictably, I’d put the blame that this wasn’t resolved privately on the shoulders of Speaker Bosma. Had he simply enforced the requests he made in his letter of invitation to the ministers, I don’t think we would have seen the lawsuit. The letter of invitation said:
The invocation is to be a short prayer asking for guidance and help in the matters that come before the members. We ask that you strive for an ecumenical prayer as our members, staff and constituents come from different faith backgrounds.
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