A ruling last week by a federal judge which held that the US National Day of Prayer was unconstitutional, has been attacked by a politicians and legal experts. President Barack Obama supports the national prayer day.

U.S. Federal Judge Barbara Crabb ruled in favor of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which argued that the government setting aside a day of prayer violates the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution, saying the government cannot call for religious action.

Judge Crabb ruled that Government involvement in prayer is constitutional only as long as it does not call for religious action, which the prayer day does.

But Jordan Sekulow, a lawyer with the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ) says Crabb’s decision is “flawed.”

In a statement, Sekulow said that it was unfortunate that the court “failed to understand that a day set aside for prayer for the country represents a time-honored tradition that embraces the First Amendment, not violates it”.

“The Establishment Clause is to mandate the federal government from establishing a national church, to say that you have to read a specific Bible or to say a specific prayer,” he clarifies.

“That’s not what’s done in this National Day of Prayer Proclamation. Here, we are again just signifying and looking back on our history, respecting our history of the founding of the Judeo-Christian country.”

The US Congress established the day in 1952 and in 1988 set the first Thursday in May as the day for presidents to issue proclamations asking Americans to pray.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a Wisconson-based group of atheists and agnostics, filed a lawsuit against the federal government in 2008 arguing the day violated the separation of church and state.

President Barack Obama’s administration has countered that the statute simply acknowledges the role of religion in the United States. Obama issued a proclamation last year but did not hold public events with religious leaders as former President George W. Bush had done.

Sekulow, whose ACLJ group also fought the motion in court, said the ruling would be quickly appealed.

“We represented…31 members of Congress [in the case],” says the attorney. “We’ll be ready to file our amicus brief to the appeal to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals — and I’m sure the president and the White House, the executive branch, are getting their appeal ready as well.”

Congressman Randy Forbes (R-Virginia) is one of the 31 members of Congress mentioned by Sekulow. He says Thursday’s decision “represents a movement we are seeing across the country of a small minority who want to exclude faith, religion, and morality from the marketplace of ideas” and “seeks to unravel [the] very foundation our nation was built upon.”

Meanwhile, the White House has indicated President Obama will go ahead with issuing a proclamation for this year’s event, schedule for Thursday, May 6. In her ruling, Judge Crabb indicated this year’s day of prayer will go on as planned.