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Credited with prompting the policy, ACLU will help defend it against lawsuit.
The ACLU of Virginia announced today that it expects to file a friend-of-the-court brief in defense of Fredericksburg City Council’s policy requiring its meeting-opening prayers to be non-sectarian. The non-sectarian prayer policy was adopted in November 2005 after the ACLU threatened to file a lawsuit if City Council continued to allow one of its members, Rev. Hashmel Turner, to open meetings with a sectarian Christian prayer.
The ban on sectarian prayers drew the ire of the Charlottesville-based Rutherford Institute, which sued City Council on Rev. Turner’s behalf, claiming that he was being denied the right to deliver the prayer of his choice.
According to the Fredericksburg Free Lance Star, City Council has retained the services of the Virginia law firm of Hunton & Williams and the Washington-based organization People for the American Way, which will represent the City without charge.
“True religious equality can only exist when the government does not abuse its authority by promoting some religions over others,” said ACLU of Virginia executive director Kent Willis. “Public officials are certainly free to express their individual religious beliefs, but when they speak for the government, as they do when they open meetings with a formal prayer, they cannot express a religious preference.”
“The ACLU would be the first organization in line to defend Rev. Turner’s right to express his religious beliefs, including during city council deliberations,” added Willis. “But in those moments when Rev. Tuner is the voice of the government he must not misuse the power given to him to promote one religion and thereby diminish all others.”
The impending court action will likely bring to close a controversy that began three years ago when a Fredericksburg resident complained about Rev. Turner’s sectarian prayers at the beginning of City Council meetings. Turner stopped participating in the prayer ceremony after the ACLU of Virginia intervened, then asked fellow members of City Council to adopt a policy permitting sectarian prayers.
But City Council, acting on the advice of Fredericksburg City Attorney Kathleen Dooley, voted instead to abide by rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals holding that formal prayers conducted at legislative meetings must be non-sectarian.
Contact: Kent Willis, 804-644-8022