KATC-TV, New Orleans – 8/24/2006

The ACLU of Louisiana threatened to sue the City of New Orleans over a planned prayer service to commemorate the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. As a result, the City promptly caved in to the demands of the ACLU.

The Executive Director of the ACLU of Louisiana threatened the lawsuit to halt the ecumenical prayer service unless the City renamed the service and invited Harry Greenberger of the “New Orleans Secular Humanist Association,” a so-called non-religious organization, to participate. To avoid the suit, the City invited Mr. Greenberger and renamed the prayer service as a “Remembrance, Renewal and Rebirth Service.”

The ACLU, in threatening the lawsuit, said that the City of New Orleans needs to get out of “the public piety business.” As modified to accommodate the ACLU’s demands, the “Rebirth Service” was conducted on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.