District court says city councilor can't pray in Jesus' name

August 16, 2006

(RNS) A district court has dismissed a suit by a Virginia city council member who argued the council had violated his freedom of speech by preventing him from praying in Jesus' name.

The case of the Rev. Hashmel Turner, a pastor and a Fredericksburg, Va., council member, is one of several recently in which courts have had to define the appropriate boundaries for religious expression in civic life.

Turner wanted to invoke Jesus' name during opening prayers at council meetings; council members take turns offering the invocation. In November, under threat of a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union, the council adopted a proposal to offer nondenominational prayers. Turner, with the help of the Rutherford Institute of Charlottesville, Va., sued in hopes of gaining court permission to pray as he wished.

On Monday (Aug. 14), Chief Judge James R. Spencer of the U.S. District Court in Richmond sided with the council, which argued that Turner's prayer is government speech rather than private speech.

"Since the opening prayer is government speech, it must abide by the mandates of the Establishment Clause," he ruled, citing U.S. Supreme Court rulings that said the First Amendment prohibits legislative prayers that are sectarian.

John W. Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, said his organization intends to appeal the decision. "Cases of great constitutional importance always face uphill battles," he said.

Lawyers for the People for the American Way Foundation, who helped represent the Fredericksburg City Council, welcomed the decision.

"The council's approach is not only constitutional, it also reflects the fact that the council represents all Fredericksburg residents, regardless of their faith," said Judith E. Schaeffer, deputy legal director of the Washington-based foundation.

In a separate church-state decision, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court decision declaring that a monument outside the Harris County Civil Courthouse in Houston that contains an open Bible is unconstitutional.

"We hold that although the monument at one time may have passed constitutional scrutiny, its recent history would force an objective observer to conclude that it is a religious symbol of a particular faith, located on public grounds," the court ruled Tuesday (Aug. 15) in a 2-1 decision.

-- Adelle M. Banks