ACLU offers to settle prayer suit against Forsyth County

By: Wesley Young | Winston-Salem Journal
Published: December 17, 2008

The American Civil Liberties Union is offering to settle its suit against Forsyth County over public prayer before meetings if the county will agree to stop sectarian prayer and pay legal fees to the ACLU, the Winston-Salem Journal has learned.
Forsyth County commissioners will discuss the offer and get an update on the suit Thursday during a closed session. The board is expected to meet with Michael Johnson, the Alliance Defense Fund attorney who has been handling the board's defense of the ACLU suit.
The ACLU sued the county on behalf of several citizens in March 2007 over the county's practice of allowing ministers who give the opening invocation to use specifically Christian terminology in their prayers. The ACLU maintains that the practice is an unconstitutional endorsement of Christianity.
No one disputes that the prayers often have Christian references. The ADF maintains that a pre-meeting prayer with sectarian references can pass constitutional muster if it is not intended to advance any religion at the expense of another. The ADF took on the county's case last year under a deal that had the ADF picking up the cost of fighting the suit.
ADF attorney Michael Johnson said he would talk to commissioners Thursday about the ACLU's offer of a settlement, but declined to go into details.
"I don't think it is a workable settlement offer and I hope that the county commission agrees," Johnson said. "I certainly hope they are going to reject it and I believe they will. It is my hope that they would stay the course."
The ACLU attorney handling the case was not available for comment.
Sources knowledgeable about the ACLU offer said it would have the county pay the ACLU $60,000 in attorney fees and promise to not allow sectarian prayer at board meetings.
Commissioner Gloria Whisenhunt said today that the county should continue to fight the suit. Commissioner Beaufort Bailey said it would be cheaper for the county to get out now than to wait and possibly pay more later. Whisenhunt and Bailey were on opposite sides when the county voted 4-3 in 2007 to have the ADF fight the suit. Their positions haven't changed.
Commissioner Walter Marshall, who voted against fighting the suit in 2007, said he isn't sure about the cost of getting out under the ACLU proposal.
"I don't know if we have the money to pay them $60,000," Marshall said. "My inclination is to get out, but I don't know about the cost."
Under the county's deal with the ADF, the ADF would not pay legal fees or damages if the county were to lose the suit. When the ADF entered the case, local supporters of the county pledged to raise money to cover any costs the county might incur.
Whisenhunt said the county is "covered by the private money out there."
"I think it would be an insult to all the people who stepped forward to help us to turn around now," Whisenhunt said.