A number of foundations and other nonprofit groups have filed statements of support for Forsyth County as it appeals a federal judge's decision in May to ban prayers that mention Jesus or make other sectarian references at county meetings.
Seven friend-of-the-court briefs have been filed in support of the county.
Forsyth County residents sued the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners in 2007 over the practice of allowing clergy who give opening prayers at board meetings to make Christian references in their prayers.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which had earlier asked the county to stop the practice, is representing the plaintiffs in court.
A group called Americans United for Separation of Church and State is also backing the plaintiffs.
The county is being represented by the Alliance Defense Fund, a group that supports public expressions of Christianity. Many of the groups filing friend-of-the-court briefs have similar goals.
ACLU attorney Katherine Parker said she expected the county to get a lot of backing from groups and she said she will get them for her clients' side as well.
Parker said that nothing in the friend-of-the-court briefs filed in favor of the county changes the main arguments of the case.
"We feel that our case is as strong as it could be as far as precedents in the 4th Circuit and the Supreme Court have said, that sectarian prayer is unconstitutional and against the First Amendment," she said.
The ACLU has until June 21 to file its response to the county's appeal, and because of that, no friend-of-the-court briefs have been filed for it.
The groups filing appeals include the Rutherford Institute of Charlottesville, Va., which supports public expressions of faith; the National Legal Foundation of Virginia Beach, Va., a Christian public-interest law firm; the Retired Judges of America of Baton Rouge, La., which promotes interpreting the U.S. Constitution as they say the founders understood it.
"The people who wrote the Constitution had chaplains pray for them," said John Whitehead, the founder and president of the Rutherford Institute. Whitehead said that because the county's policy is open to all faiths, it should pass constitutional muster.
"I think it will put it in the line of historical practice," he said.
In another of the friend-of-the-court briefs, the argument is made that over the past year at least 23 of the prayers given at the Congress made reference to Jesus.
Other groups filing friend-of-the-court briefs include the Independence Law Center of Harrisburg, Pa., and the Foundation for Moral Law, based in Montgomery, Ala., both groups promoting the expression of religious faith in public, and the Justice and Freedom Fund of California.
Jointly filing one brief were such traditional-values groups as the N.C. Family Policy Council, the Palmetto Family Council, the Family Foundation of Virginia and the Family Policy Council of West Virginia. Joining that brief was the N.C. Partnership for Religious Liberty, the local group of citizens who have pledged to support the county financially in case it loses the case and must pay legal fees to the plaintiffs.
John Korzen, an attorney and law professor at the Wake Forest University School of Law, said that friend-of-the-court briefs, filed by third parties with no direct connection to a case, can be useful to the court as it sifts the law.
"They are meant to give help to the court in reaching a decision and let a particular group give its particular take on a situation," said Korzen, who has extensive experience at the appellate-court level. "They are very common in the Supreme Court, where sometimes you will see 50 or more. They are kind of unusual at the circuit level."
wyoung@wsjournal.com | 727-7369
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