GREENSBORO, N.C. (ABP) – A North Carolina county commission is expected to appeal a decision by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that said its policy on opening meetings with prayer violates the Constitution.
A three-judge panel voted 2-1 on July 29 to uphold a January 2010 ruling by a federal district judge that Forsyth County’s policy of allowing invited ministers to voice sectarian prayers amounted to an unconstitutional establishment of religion by the local government.
A 28-page decision written by Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III quoted a friend-of-the-court brief filed by the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty arguing that the prayers improperly promoted Christianity over other religions.
Wilkinson said the Constitution allows use of “legislative prayer” to “solemnize” public occasions, but due to the risk of invocations in governmental settings being used to establish religion they should be non-sectarian. Wilkinson said the preponderance of prayers delivered in Jesus’ name “led to exactly the kind of divisiveness the Establishment Clause seeks rightly to avoid.”
Circuit Judge Paul Niemeyer wrote a dissenting opinion that the county’s policy did not show favoritism because it applied to non-Christian clergy as well, and that officials had no obligation to censor the prayers of invited ministers.
The Winston-Salem Journal reported Aug. 2 that at least four of the seven commissioners said they expected to vote to appeal the ruling.
Bob Allen is managing editor of Associated Baptist Press.
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