[SmithL]

Crabb, Barbara Brandriff

Born 1939 in Green Bay, WI

Federal Judicial Service:
Judge, U. S. District Court, Western District of Wisconsin
Nominated by Jimmy Carter on July 21, 1979, to a new seat created by 92 Stat. 1629; Confirmed by the Senate on October 31, 1979, and received commission on November 2, 1979. Served as chief judge, 1980-1996. Assumed senior status on March 24, 2010.

U.S. Magistrate, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, 1971-1979

Education:
University of Wisconsin, Madison, B.A., 1960
University of Wisconsin Law School, LL.B., 1962

Professional Career:
Private practice, Madison, Wisconsin, 1962-1964
Research assistant, George Bunn, University of Wisconsin Law School, 1968-1969
Research assistant, ABA Project on Minimum Standards of Criminal Justice, 1970-1971

Race or Ethnicity: White

Gender: Female

[tatsinfla]

did obama file the suit...??...lol...

[mgstarr]

She joined the court in 1979 after being nominated by President Jimmy Carter.

[MrB]

Let’s just form two countries and get it over with...

[Ballygrl]

Bet that a Muslim Day of Prayer would be allowed though!

[muawiyah]

So what. This judge can just go pound sound for all I care.

I'm not going along with the ruling and I dare the judge to send the US Marshalls to come around and make me conform.

Besides, judges do not have the authority to determine what is or is not legitimately religious in this country.

[Marty62]

NOW Zero will cancel the National Day of Payer. He was just waiting for the ruling.

[tiredoflaundry]

lawsuit filed by the Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation.

Last time I checked I had Freedom OF religion, not Freedom FROM religion!

[SatinDoll]

Freedom from religion isn’t in the U.S.Constitution. What this judge has done violates, literally, our rights.

If you don’t want to pray, then don’t. If you don’t like someone’s religous message, walk away, run away or ignore it. What you can’t do is tell them to shut up!

Islam, IMHO however, has major tenets that are patently unconstitutional. No more of its adherents should be allowed to immigrate into the United States. Those Muslims already here should have their politiical activities proscribed.

[ArmstedFragg]

Kind of interesting on the same day that the Escondido, California City Council voted unanimously to put the religious icon of an obscure Shinto cult (aka: a “peace pole”) in the courtyard at city hall. Apparently intermixing church and state is okay as long as the church isn't Christian.

[mikelets456]

So Gay pride day and all this other BS in schools is what our founder fathers intended? FUSCOTUS!

This is beyond out of hand....This is not America as I knew it anymore.

[gwilhelm56]

OH ... MadiSTAN!! Never mind.

[Thunder90]

Obama has got to like this. He has dodged a political bullet. Now he can say that the judiciary has prevented him from doing the Day of Prayer (even though 0 did not want to anyway).

[Hodar]

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Did this Federal Judge got to Law School, has she ever read the US Constitution? There is no requirement to pray, nor is there any direction as to what religion you must follow.

[Saundra Duffy]

I find this amusing. Jews, Catholics, Mormons, and others, were excluded as per Mrs. focus-on-the-family which I thought was unconstitutional but there was nothing I could do about it. Like I said, I find this amusing.

[driftdiver]

Its freedom OF religion, not freedom FROM religion

[Tex-Con-Man]

I never went to law school, nor took an online course, but even I can figure out that a “national day of prayer” is nowhere near the ballpark of establishing a state religion.

How is it these people are ever taken seriously?

[a fool in paradise]

How about the in-school “Day of Silence” if you tell them you are going to use it to pray for sinners?

[Cicero]

Jimmy Carter appointee. I'm afraid there are a ton of judges sitting at their benches out there who wouldn't know what the Constitution was if it bit them on the *ss.

[Lucky9teen]

In a small way, I can kind of see her point:

Government involvement in prayer is constitutional only as long as it does not call for religious action, which the prayer day does, U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb wrote in her ruling.

"It goes beyond mere 'acknowledgment' of religion because its sole purpose is to encourage all citizens to engage in prayer, an inherently religious exercise that serves no secular function in this context," Crabb wrote. "In this instance, the government has taken sides on a matter that must be left to individual conscience."

But then again...

"It is unfortunate that this 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," ACLJ Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow said in a statement.