Ah, so maybe this is what prompted today’s (false) rumor that President Obama was canceling National Day of Prayer 2010: a federal district judge in Wisconsin has ruled that the 1988 law creating the annual observance is unconstitutional.

According to the Associated Press story, the order does not block any prayer day until after appeals in the case are exhausted; White House officials have confirmed that Obama still plans to recognize the observance on May 6, now in its 59th year. (The 1988 law was just more specific.) As of 6 p.m. today, there wasn’t anything about this ruling posted on the official National Day of Prayer site, aside from the information posted about the lawsuit a few months ago, so I assume organizers aren’t too worried.

By the way, this is not to be confused with the similarly controversial National Prayer Breakfast, which took place in February.

*Click here to subscribe to Belief Beat and click here to follow Belief Beat on Twitter.