National Day of Prayer: Yet Another Brick in the Wall

Yup, it's that time of year again. National Day of Prayer is just around the corner. This year it falls on May 2, which is either today or yesterday, depending on when I feel like finishing this. This also means it's time to break out my favorite Supreme Court case, Lemon v Kurtzman, the golden ruler of unconstitutionality. This case's influence is summed up nicely here.

National Day of Prayer was established in the year 1952, during the unconstitutional and shameful McCarthy era, where the far right in America quickly showed their lack of consideration for the First Amendment, by instituting this  government sanction of religion, along with adding the facinorous words "Under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance. This was not for the greater good of the citizens of the United States; instead, this was merely xenophobic rhetoric.

The law bringing National Day of Prayer into existence states the following:

The President shall issue each year a proclamation designating
the first Thursday in May as a National Day of Prayer on which the
people of the United States may turn to God in prayer and
meditation at churches, in groups, and as individuals.

That would be great, having one day a year for people to go the church. It would be really great, since people weren't given the right to go to any church they would like any day they would like by the First Amendment.

Oh, wait a minute. They are.

How funny.

So that means that the law has no secular legislative purpose, and that, since it advances religion, it fails two prongs of the Lemon test?

Seems like common sense.

Gee, law seeming like common sense? What trickery is at work here?

So you mean the Constitution outlaws religion interfering with government, no matter what religion?

The people that just answered "no" to these questions are why our country is losing to China and Europe. Perhaps this monstrosity proves Voltaire's point: "Common sense is not so common."

Happy Law Day everyone.