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Taxpayer may get a fat bill
If prayer case goes on to appeal, losing side will pay legal expenses of winner
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Published: October 19, 2009
Residents who support sectarian prayer at meetings of the county commissioners will have to dig deeper into their pockets if the case goes on to an appeal, Dave Plyler, the board chairman, said last week.
The local group N.C. Partnership for Religious Liberty Inc. has raised about $55,000 to pay the county's legal fees in the suit, which was filed against Forsyth County by two residents upset over sectarian prayer at board meetings.
Magistrate Judge Trevor Sharp heard oral arguments in the case Wednesday and promised he would render a decision soon.
The Alliance Defense Fund is representing the county at no cost and is prepared to go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, ADF attorney Michael Johnson said.
But expenses the ADF won't pay are the legal fees of the plaintiffs. If the county ultimately loses the case, a judge could order the county to pay the legal expenses of the winning side.
"If the citizens' group will carry the freight," Plyler said, he's willing at this point to keep carrying the case forward through appeals if necessary.
Plyler's opinion matters because he's the swing vote on a board that's otherwise split 3-3 on the prayer issue. The split is along party lines, with three Democrats opposed to fighting the suit and four Republicans -- including Plyler so far -- committed to defending the county's prayer practice.
The Rev. Stephen Corts said that members of the N.C. Partnership "will do our very best to raise the resources" needed to persuade the county to keep the court fight going. Corts is the chairman of the group, and the senior pastor of Center Grove Baptist Church in Clemmons.
"The higher up it goes, the more of a national issue it becomes," Corts said, suggesting that people and groups outside the county might contribute to the group's cause.
Local supporters of the county's prayer policies organized and promised financial support after the county was sued. The directors of the group are Corts; the Rev. Al Gilbert, senior pastor of Calvary Baptist Church; the Rev. Rick Speas, senior pastor of Old Town Baptist Church (and former president of the Baptist State Convention of N.C.); and the Rev. Shawn Dobbs, the pastor of Edgewood Baptist Church. Religious broadcaster Stu Epperson Jr. has supported the group but is not one of its leaders.
At stake is whether clergy who pray before commission meetings may make sectarian references -- references to Jesus Christ or the deity of any particular religion.
Under the county's policy, clergy of all faiths -- not just Christians -- are invited to give the prayer before a county meeting. On a first-come, first-served basis, the county schedules the invocations.
Prayer-givers are asked not to exploit the opportunity to convert others or disparage another faith, but the board does not censor the contents of the prayer.
The county says that's a fair and unbiased way to allow prayers, but the plaintiffs argue differently.
They point out that the vast majority of the prayers have Christian references, and they argue that in allowing them the board is trying to advance Christianity.
Last week, ACLU attorney Katherine Parker told the court that any sectarian references in the prayers are out of bounds according to the way the Fourth Circuit -- including North Carolina -- has interpreted the law.
Sharp didn't say how he might rule but questioned how to reconcile the county's stance with other Fourth Circuit rulings that favor only nonsectarian prayer. Johnson argued that the Forsyth County case differs in ways that make a different ruling proper.
Plaintiffs Constance Blackmon and Janet Joyner are members of the Winston-Salem chapter of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.
Chapter President Steve Weston said he believes that the chances of an appeal are "pretty certain" if Sharp rules in favor of the county.
The group joined the ACLU in 2007 in filing suit against the county on behalf of the plaintiffs.
"The county has to decide how willing are they to have the taxpayers shoulder the burden of this thing," Weston said.
Plyler said that local lawyers have told him the county could face a legal bill of $300,000 to $700,000 if the case were to go to the Supreme Court and the county were to lose there. Johnson maintains that the cost would be far less, but declined to specify a number.
Plyler said he's worried that the county has become a pawn in a fight between national interest groups.
"We are the ones who are going to be asked to pay their freight while the two sides are fighting it out between themselves," Plyler said.
wyoung@wsjournal.com
727-7369
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