The Smalkowski case attracted national attention after Nicole Smalkowski was kicked off of the girls' basketball team after refusing to stand in a circle with her teammates on the gymnasium floor of the Hardesty public High School and recite the "Lord's Prayer." After school officials learned that she and her family were Atheists, lies were created about her as grounds to take her off of the team.

When her father Chuck discovered conclusively that public school and law enforcement officials had lied to him about his 15 year old daughter, he and Nicole and her mother Nadia went to the home of principal Lloyd Buckley to attempt to discuss the matter with him. Outside of his front fence, the principal struck Chuck, who blocked the blow. Both men fell to the ground and Buckley sustained minor injuries, the provable origins of which were strikingly contrary to his under oath trial testimony. Buckley then took out misdemeanor criminal assault charges against Chuck. After Smalkowski rejected the offer to drop the charges if he and his Atheist family left the state, the charges were raised to a felony. Chuck called American Atheists for help.

On June 22, 2006, after only a little over two and a half hours of deliberation, a span of time that included dinner, the jury found Chuck "Not Guilty" of the felony charge of assault and of two lesser included misdemeanor assault charges.

One of the main problems with any totliatarian state is the need for radical conformity. Any difference is not tolerated. In fact any difference from the main group can get you killed, jailed, persecuted. It is perceived as a threat to the power of the state.

The "good" folks of Hardesty knew they vastly outnumbered the Smalkowskis. They knew they were not in any physical danger from them. They knew their churches, homes and religion were under no threat from these atheists. The threat was to their power. The power to make you pray their prayers to their God at a time and place of their choosing.

If you are a Christian, Jew, Atheist, Buddhist, Muslim, Baha'i, or any kind of American you must stand with the Smalkowskis. You must stand with them if you would like to make those prayer decisions yourself and not have them imposed on you.

There's no particular reason to believe that God wants to hear the prayers of people who were forced to pray. It is the powerful Christianists who are pleased by those prayers, not God.