Two activists, Mitch Kahle and Kevin Hughes, were assaulted and thrown out of the Hawaii State Capitol building for objecting to the morning’s prayer. After being thoroughly brutalized by security forces, Mitch was arrested for “disorderly conduct”. Luckily, there are still a few people with their heads screwed on right, and at his trial Judge Leslie Hayashi needed less than an hour to find Mitch not guilty.

“Number one, there was no disorderly conduct. Number two, he has a first amendment right to speak in a public forum such as he did. And number three, the legislature was violating our U.S. Constitution as well as the Hawaii constitution by having these invocations”

Harrison [Kahle’s lawyer] thinks this case may be enough to convince law makers to stop saying prayers during official state business.

“They make the law for the state, so they should recognize and understand what our constitution says. And in fact the court did express very much her (Hayashi’s) concerns with regards to invocations in this public forum. And so the legislature, the city council, any other public entity on public property should be concerned and should heed the warning of this court in its ruling”

Feels like a tiny victory, doesn’t it?