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Those poor, persecuted Christians may now be forced to listen to other faiths' prayers. How will they ever survive? Oh, probably by filing an appeal with the Supreme Court, costing their taxpayers still more money.
more from the Charlotte Observer
The case is Lund, et al. v. Rowan County
Federal court: NC commissioners' prayer practice violates U.S. Constitution
A federal appeals court ruled Friday that a North Carolina county’s practice of opening commissioners’ meetings with Christian prayers – and inviting the audience to join in – is unconstitutional.
The 45-page opinion by the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va. sets up a possible showdown on the issue at the U.S. Supreme Court in coming months.
The appeals court ruled 10-5 in favor of the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of non-Christian residents who claimed they felt excluded by the prayer.
more from the Charlotte Observer
Appeals court tells Rowan County to find another way to pray
“The principle at stake here may be a profound one, but it is also simple,” Judge Harvie Wilkinson of Virginia wrote. “The Establishment Clause does not permit a seat of government to wrap itself in a single faith.”
(. . .)
In a dissenting 4th Circuit opinion, Judge Paul Niemeyer, who was appointed to the court by former President George H.W. Bush, said the majority ruling sidesteps the Greece precedent and “actively undermines the appropriate role of prayer in American civic life.”
Wilkinson, a Ronald Reagan appointee and one of the country’s leading conservative legal voices, disagreed.
“The great promise of the Establishment Clause is that religion will not operate as instrument of division in our nation,” he wrote.
“Rowan County regrettably sent the opposite message” by creating “a closed-universe of prayer-givers dependent solely on election outcomes.... Free religious exercise can only remain free if not influenced and directed by the hand of the state.”
The case is Lund, et al. v. Rowan County