Atheist Group Loses Lawsuit Over Colo. Day of Prayer

An atheist group has reportedly lost a lawsuit to ban Colorado's statewide Day of Prayer.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation had filed a lawsuit against the state of Colorado on behalf of four residents in regard to the annual proclamation of a Day of Prayer by Governor John Hickenlooper.

Every year, Hickenlooper declares the special day to coincide with the National Day of Prayer.

Although the Freedom of Religion Foundation argued that the governor's declaration was unconstitutional, the Colorado Supreme Court said prosecutors failed to show that the statewide Day of Prayer harmed nonbelievers or restricted their constitutional rights.

"Although we do not question the sincerity of Respondents' feelings, without more, their circuitous exposure to the honorary proclamations and concomitant belief that the proclamations expressed the Governor's preference for religion is simply too indirect and incidental an injury to confer individual standing," Chief Justice Nancy E. Rice wrote in her opinion.

"To hold otherwise would render the injury-in-fact requirement superfluous, as any person who learned of a government action through the media and felt politically marginalized as a result of that secondhand media exposure would have individual standing to sue the government," the chief justice added.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation has criticized Rice's ruling, with co-president Dan Barker saying in a statement: "Being formally told to pray every year by their governor is what the Colorado State Constitution so obviously sought to protect citizens from."

"This decision guts the no preference clause of the Colorado State Constitution saying no preference shall be 'given by law to any religious denomination or mode of worship.'"