ACLU HITS IVANCIE'S PRAYER DAY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000303450001-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 26, 2010
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: May 2, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/26: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303450001-7
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
2 May 1983
PORTLAND, ORE.
ACLU HITS IVANCIE'S "PRAYER DAY"
BY ANDREW MacLEOD
A key test of whether Mayor Frank Ivancie's proposed "City Day of Prayer"
violates separation of church and state is if less-popular events could be held
at City Hall, a civil rights attorney said today.
David Landau, a Washington, D.C.,-based attorney and lobbyist for the
American Civil Liberties Union. said another test would be whether public funds
were used.
'You have to look at whether that hall' would be open (under similar
circumstances) to a gay rights group or a Ku Klux Klan group,'' Landau said at a
news conference.
The ACLU has filed suit in Multnomah County Circuit Court to halt the
observance, which is set for Thursday at city Hall. A court hearing is scheduled
iiesdnesday on the action.
Ivancie aide Ted Johnson has said invitations to the pubic observance were
printed with city-county equipment at city expense. An employee in the mayor's
office was listed as the contact for more information.
The event was scheduled in conjunction with President Reagan's proclamation
of May 5 as a ''National Day of Prayer.''
Ivancie has responded by suggesting the ACLU was being trite.
If this is all the ACLU can find to complain about, it should be
disbanded, " he has said.
The separation of church and state, outlined in both the U.S. Constitution
and Oregon Constitution. has been among the focal points of the ACLU.
Nationally, Landau said, the Reagan administration and the ''New Right" have
teamed up to turn back the clock on civil-liberty issues, renewing
administration efforts that failed in 1980 and 1981.
''In 1983, we see attacks resurfacing with a new face,'' he said. ''And in
our view, the Reagan administration has launched a new attack on civil rights.''
Civil-liberty issues such as school prayer, abortion and segregation are
being chipped at by administration-backed proposals before Congress, he said.
Allowing the CIA to engage in domestic spying and the FBI to infiltrate
domestic political groups are examples of the administration's assault on civil
liberties, he said.
"This Is returning us to the early days of the 1960s and i470s when the FBI
was engaged in. political spying, " he said.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/26: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303450001-7