On The Front Lines

ACLU, People for the American Way Join Forces to Oppose Rutherford Institute Lawsuit Over City Council Member's Right to Pray 'in Jesus' Name'

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. -- The Fredericksburg (VA) City Council has announced its decision to accept an offer from the Richmond-based law firm Hunton & Williams and the People for the American Way Foundation to defend the city against a Rutherford Institute lawsuit that challenges the city council's ban on sectarian prayer at meetings. The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia has also announced its intention to weigh in on the matter with a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the ban on sectarian prayers. The announcements came in response to a lawsuit filed in January 2006 by attorneys for The Rutherford Institute against the City Council of Fredericksburg, Va., for adopting a prayer policy that discriminates against city council member Hashmel Turner because of his Christian beliefs and prevents him from praying at council meetings according to his conscience and religious beliefs. The Fredericksburg City Council's policy prohibiting sectarian prayers was adopted after the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia threatened them with a lawsuit if they did not take steps to pressure or force Turner to stop praying in Jesus Christ's name. In their complaint, which was filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Institute attorneys charge that the Fredericksburg City Council's policy regarding prayers at the start of council meetings violates Turner's constitutional rights to free speech, to freely exercise his religious beliefs and to equal protection of the law.

There has been increasing confusion over the issue of prayer and/or invocations at City Council meetings since the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals issued its 2004 decision in Wynne v. Town of Great Falls, South Carolina, in which the court held that City Council members in Great Falls violated the First Amendment's Establishment Clause by engaging in prayers that contained explicit references to a deity of one specific faith. A subsequent ruling in Simpson v. Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors added to the confusion when the court rejected a challenge to a county board's practice of opening board public meetings with a prayer. For years, the Fredericksburg City Council has allowed its council members on a rotating basis to open meetings with a prayer without placing any restrictions on the nature of that prayer. On those occasions when it has been his turn to offer a prayer, city councilman Hashmel Turner, in keeping with his Christian beliefs, has ended his prayers by briefly invoking the name of Jesus Christ. However, on two separate occasions over the past several years, the Virginia ACLU has raised objections to Turner's prayers and has threatened to sue the City for allowing the sectarian prayers. In its most recent letter, the ACLU demanded that the Fredericksburg City Council take official action to prevent Turner from offering a prayer according to his religious beliefs and conscience. Turner, who also serves as acting pastor for First Baptist Church of Love in Fredericksburg, has refused to compromise his religious beliefs by allowing others to dictate how he prays. On November 8, 2005, the Fredericksburg City Council acceded to the ACLU's demands and adopted a prayer policy that could make Turner's sectarian prayers "disorderly conduct," subjecting him to punishment and fines. In filing suit against the City of Fredericksburg's City Council for its discriminatory policy, Institute attorneys are asking the court to declare that the Council's prayer policy is an unconstitutional violation of Turner's free speech rights and allow Turner to pray in accordance with his conscience and his religious beliefs.