Foes file brief in public prayer court case

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- 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. In November, 27 S.C. senators – including Grand Strand politicians Ray Cleary and Luke Rankin – filed their own brief asking the court to take up the case.

Attorneys with the Allied Defense Fund, which is representing Forsyth 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.

The justices may decide in January whether to consider the case, Parker said.