Missouri attorney general Koster joins lawsuit to preserve the National Day of Prayer

Missouri attorney general Chris Koster is joining 28 other state attorney generals in a lawsuit to urge the federal appeals court to preserve the National Day of Prayer.

In April, a federal judge in Wisconsin ruled in  that the National Day of Prayer was unconstitutional, but the decision will not take effect until appeals end. Supporters of the ban argue that the National Day of Prayer violates the separation of church and state.

However, Koster says the federal court ruling casts doubt on state laws setting days of prayer and proclamations calling for special days of prayer after tragedies. He points out that a day of prayer does not require people to pray, and also that the Founding Fathers, who wrote the Constitution, issued proclamations calling for days of prayer.