Texas Lt Governor Threatens To Eject Citizens From Senate Gallery Unless They Stand For Christian Prayer

The Freedom From Religion Foundation writes:

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is calling on Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to retract a recent unconstitutional threat to eject citizens from the state Senate chamber if they do not stand during official prayers. During the Senate’s Aug. 15 session, Sen. Angela Paxton delivered a Christian invocation “in the name of Jesus, who has saved us, who keeps us safe, and who is coming again.”

Immediately afterward, Patrick admonished members of the public gallery who had remained seated: “For those of you who didn’t stand, next time you come to the gallery, you stand for the invocation. It’s respecting the Senate. If you don’t stand for the invocation, I’ll have you removed. We asked you to stand. I’ve never seen a gallery ever have any members in my 17 years of people who refused to stand for the invocation. It will not be tolerated.”

In a letter sent Monday, Aug. 18, FFRF calls Patrick’s directive unconstitutional and discriminatory. “Citizens have the right to attend legislative proceedings without being coerced into religious observance,” FFRF legal counsel Chris Line writes. “Ordering attendees to stand during a religious exercise is unconstitutionally compelling their participation in religious activity. Conditioning access to government on religious conformity violates the Establishment Clause and the First Amendment rights to free speech and free exercise of religion.”

FFRF points out that Patrick himself once walked out of the Texas Senate chamber during its first Muslim prayer in 2007, saying at the time that even standing respectfully would appear to be an “endorsement” of the prayer. This hypocrisy is par for the course for Patrick, who refers to himself as a “Christian first, conservative second.”

Watch the video. Dan Patrick, you will recall, is an ardent defender of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is being divorced by the above-cited senator for adulterously fucking other women.

We have the right to free expression. The government (Dan Patrick) doesn’t get to take that away. If an individual at a government function doesn’t want to stand for your prayer (and yeah, don’t get me rolling on prayer at a government function), they don’t have to stand. https://t.co/FCdW66VaHJ

— Christopher Tackett (cjtackett on 🦋 &🧵) (@cjtackett) August 16, 2025