A federal court judge's ruling that sectarian prayer to open Forsyth County Board of Commissioners meetings is unconstitutional and must stop should end the case: It's time for commissioners to abandon this losing battle and concentrate on more pressing issues, such as jobs and education.
Commissioner Debra Conrad disagrees. Her response to the decision was, "Appeal, appeal, appeal." That means money, money, money -- potentially, hundreds of thousands of dollars from taxpayers, most of whom never signed up for this battle.
Fortunately, Commissioner Chairman Dave Plyler, the swing vote on this matter, is ready to bring it to a close. If a local group that supports the county's policy, the North Carolina Partnership for Religious Liberty, won't sign a new agreement to pay the American Civil Liberties Union's legal fees if the county loses the next round, Plyler said Friday, he'll vote to stop further appeals. "My guess is that (the agreement) is not going to happen," he said.
"We've got problems in the county. We don't need to be spending money on the ACLU. We need to move on. The right thing to do is not to continue this any further if they won't pay for it. We should never have gotten into this in the first place, to tell you the truth."
The Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal organization that is representing the county, has said it will pay for the county's defense, but not for the ACLU's legal fees if the county loses the suit. It was filed by county residents Janet Joyner and Constance Lynn Blackmon, who are represented by the ACLU.
In making his ruling Thursday, Judge James A. Beaty Jr. of U.S. District Court said that the plaintiffs may now pursue attorney's fees. Their expenses have come to about $100,000 but would likely double if the county takes the case to the next level, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, their ACLU lawyer, Katherine Parker, told the Journal's Wesley Young. The tab would rise if the case were to go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The local partnership backing the county has raised about $55,000 to pay the plaintiff's legal costs in the event of a loss.
Sectarian prayer is prayer to a specific deity. At commissioners' meetings, that deity is almost always Jesus Christ. Beaty wrote in his decision that the county's "invocation Policy, as implemented, has resulted in Government-sponsored prayers that advance a particular faith or belief and have the effect of affiliating the Government with that particular faith or belief." As Beaty noted in his ruling, commissioners are free to open their meetings with nonsectarian prayer. Or, for that matter, they could open their meetings with silent prayer.
The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the Constitution says that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." We have long argued on this page that sectarian prayer at government meetings is unconstitutional. We believe Beaty's ruling is correct.
Many county residents will disagree. But ultimately, this issue boils down to money. The fight should end here, before a lot of precious public dollars are thrown at a losing cause.
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