Lake Forest, USA – Pastor Rick Warren is among several people named in a federal lawsuit filed by a California atheist and others Tuesday to block prayers and mention of God in the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama.
The suit filed by Michael Newdow – who tried to remove the phrase "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance – names the Saddleback Church pastor, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and the Rev. Joseph Lowery, who is delivering the benediction. Obama is not named, according to a Saddleback Church spokeswoman.
Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of UC Irvine's Donald Bren School of Law, said such a lawsuit is extremely unlikely to succeed. He also said that Warren could not be sued because only the government can violate the Constitution.
"There have been lawsuits before and they've never succeeded," he said. "No one is injured by this. The Supreme Court has said there can be these kinds of benedictions at the start of government sessions. The court has emphasized where there is a tradition, it's permissible."
Newdow is a Sacramento physician. Newdow, joined in his complaint by 11 atheist and humanist groups, filed similar, unsuccessful suits in 2001 and 2005, when President Bush was sworn in.
By adding the words "so help me God" to the oath of office, as Supreme Court chief justices and presidents have done since at least 1933, Roberts would "infuse the inaugural ceremony with purely religious dogma," the atheists contend. The atheists also object to the place of the Bible in the ceremony, and the delivery of opening and closing prayers. Obama has asked for the copy of the Bible used by Abraham Lincoln in 1861.
Warren — pastor of the 22,000-member Lake Forest mega church — has been making national headlines and has been a source of controversy since being invited to give the invocation at the Jan. 20 inauguration and to deliver a keynote address at a Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration one day before. Both planned appearances have drawn criticism by proponents of gay marriage.
"I'm a Christian pastor so I will pray the only kind of prayer I know how to pray," Warren said in a statement.