
The Christian Post – The U.S. House of Representatives and House Chaplain Pat Conroy can reject an atheist’s request to deliver a secular invocation, a federal appeals court ruled last Friday.
A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit protected the legislative chamber’s requirement to begin each day in session with a prayer by upholding a lower court ruling that tossed out a lawsuit brought forth by atheist Dan Barker.
Barker, co-president of the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation and a former minister, claimed in a lawsuit that his First Amendment rights were violated when his 2015 application to serve as a guest chaplain in the House was denied.