A public prayer case — on hold
on Mar 21, 2005 at 6:07 pm
The Supreme Court apparently is not ready to act on a new version of the simmering controversy over public officials who pray before or during their government sessions. It appears that the Justices will sit on the case until they decide on the constitutionality of government-ordered displays of the Ten Commandments.
Although the case of Town of Great Falls v. Wynne (docket 04-1052) was up for a vote on granting or denying review this week, it did not appear on Monday’s list of Court orders. It now is linked on the Court docket with two cases from Kentucky – one now under review on a Ten Commandments display in a county courthouse (03-1693), the other now on hold involving a Ten Commandments display on a public high school’s grounds (03-1698).
The case involves a practice that seems to be well established with the Town Council of Great Falls, S.C. It usually brought a reference to Jesus Christ, as in “In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.†When the Council adopted a resolution to set a formal policy, in June 2003, it specified that a prayer at the monthly meetings would be given only by a member of the Council, would be short, and was not intended to adopt an official religion for the Town or to encourage religious exercise by the public attending Council meetings.
The prayers were challenged by a local resident, Darla Kaye Wynne, who believes in the Wiccan faith and is an officer of a group named Witches Against Religious Discrimination. She won in U.S. District Court, and in the Fourth Circuit. The Circuit Court found: “Rather than engaging in the sort of ‘legislative prayer’ approved of in Marsh v. Chambers (1983), the Council has improperly exploited a prayer opportunity to advance one religion over others. The prayers challenged here stand in sharp contrast to the prayer held not to constitute an ‘establishment of religion’ in March.†The Marsh prayer, it noted, was nonsectarian and civil, and made no references to Christ. “Here…the prayers sponsored by the Town Council frequently contained references to ‘Jesus Christ,’ and thus promoted one religion over all others, dividing the Town’s citizens along denominational lines.â€
The Town’s appeal to the Supreme Court is supported by the state of South Carolina, as amicus. The state says that references to Christ are made frequently in prayers that open the daily sessions of the state legislature.
