Attorneys for two women who sued Forsyth County over sectarian prayers at county commissioners' meetings are asking the U.S. Supreme Court not to consider the county's appeal of a lower-court ruling that bans such prayers.
A 38-page brief that opposes the appeal was filed Thursday at the Supreme Court by Katherine Parker, the attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina; two ACLU attorneys in Washington, D.C.; and Ayesha Khan, an attorney for Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
In their brief, Parker and the other attorneys argue that the nation's highest court should not consider the case because the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals correctly ruled in July that Christian prayers mentioning Jesus at the commissioners' meetings violated the First Amendment.
Rob Boston, a spokesman for Americans United, said the lower-court ruling settled the matter.
"We are not interested in the Supreme Court taking another look at it," Boston said.
In late October, Forsyth County filed a petition with the Supreme Court to overturn the appellate court's ruling.
Attorneys with the Allied Defense Fund, which is representing the county, asked the Supreme Court to decide whether the Constitution requires the county to eliminate sectarian references from prayers, and whether such prayers are unconstitutional.
Janet Joyner and Constance Lynn Blackmon, who objected to Christian prayers, filed suit against the county in 2007, saying the prayers were a government endorsement of Christianity.
Judge James Beaty Jr. of U.S. District Court ruled in January 2010 that Forsyth's prayer policy violated the First Amendment freedom from government establishment of religion. The county appealed that decision to the 4th Circuit, which upheld Beaty's ruling.
In August, the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners voted 6-1 to appeal to the Supreme Court. The county has not had prayers of any kind since Beaty's ruling, but it had operated under a policy that allowed clergy to volunteer to give invocations, with no restriction on how they could pray.
Mike Johnson of Shreveport, La., an attorney working with the ADF, said the argument of the ACLU and Americans United downplays the importance of other lower-court rulings on this issue.
"They have misrepresented the facts," Johnson said. "This is an important constitutional legal question, which is the permissibility of sectarian prayer."
In their brief, Parker and Khan cite the deposition of Commissioner Gloria Whisenhunt because "Whisenhunt understood the distinction between sectarian prayer and nonsectarian prayer," Parker said in an interview Friday.
Whisenhunt, who was the board's chairwoman in 2007 and 2008, delivered several nonsectarian prayers under the county's previous policy at the commissioners' meetings.
Whisenhunt told the attorneys in her deposition that she decided to deliver nonsectarian prayers even though she invokes the name of Jesus Christ when she prays privately, according to the brief.
"Whisenhunt explained that she chose to deliver a nonsectarian prayer 'because I'm an elected official,' " the brief says.
In an interview, Whisenhunt said she decided not to use Jesus' name in prayers at the commissioners' meetings because the county had been sued over the issue and, as an elected official, she represents people of all faiths.
"When a private citizen or a minister comes in, I will not tell them how to pray," she said.
The justices may decide in January whether to consider the case, Parker said.
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