County in North Carolina is forced to pay ACLU $285,000 after losing lawsuit over public prayer

As the son of a judge, it doesn't make this blogger proud to say that Satan seems to have more than his share of agents wearing judicial robes these days. This case provides another example of why the American Civil Liberties Union is often referred to as the Anti-Christian Litigation Union. As reported by Charles Duncan of the Raleigh News & Observer, January 10, 2019 (links in original):

A federal judge found the way the Rowan County Commission prayed before public meetings unconstitutional. An appeals court eventually agreed and the Supreme Court last summer declined to hear the case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, federal court records show. Now the county will have to pay the ACLU’s legal bills for the five-year legal fight: $285,000.

On Monday, County Commission members voted to pay the bill, the Salisbury Post reports.

“We are obviously very unhappy with this and I think a few of us are, probably, physically sick to our stomach that we have to do this, but this is the risk that we took,” County Commission Chair Greg Edds said, according to the newspaper.

The lawsuit dates back to 2013 when three Rowan County residents sued the county commission over the public prayer at the beginning of each meeting, according to court filings. The commission chair or members give a prayer at the beginning of each meeting, the lawsuit says, and over six years 97 percent of prayers were Christian.

An appeals court sided with the residents, represented by the ACLU, in 2017. “For years on end, the elected members of the county’s Board of Commissioners composed and delivered pointedly sectarian invocations. They rotated the prayer opportunity amongst themselves; no one else was permitted to offer an invocation,” a judge with the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals wrote.

“The prayers are invariably and unmistakably Christian in content,” the judges’ opinion notes, finding the Rowan County Commission’s public prayer unconstitutional.

Over the summer the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case, court records show, which upholds the ruling and ended the legal fight.

“The Supreme Court did not give an explanation for its decision as is customary in orders. Justice Clarence Thomas joined by Justice Neil Gorsuch dissented from the court’s refusal to take the case,” according to The Hill.

“Thomas said the Fourth Circuit’s decision is ‘both unfaithful to our precedents and ahistorical,’” The Hill wrote.

“This case has always been about making Rowan County more welcoming to people of all beliefs, and we are so glad that the Supreme Court has let this ruling stand,” said Nan Lund, one of the plaintiffs in the case, according to an ACLU press release.

“This is an important victory for the rights of all people to be free from religious coercion by government officials,” ACLU of North Carolina’s Chris Brook said. “People who attend public meetings should not have to fear that government officials may force them to participate in a prayer—or discriminate against them if they don’t.”

As reported by Josh Bergeron of the Salisbury Post, January 7, 2019:

Rowan County commissioners will pay $285,000 in legal fees out of a savings fund to foot the bill for a lawsuit about prayer at the start of meetings.

With little fanfare, commissioners on Monday unanimously approved the payment in conjunction with a court order issued Dec. 21. The payment will be made to the ACLU, which has represented Rowan County residents Nan Lund, Liesa Montag-Siegel and Robert Voelker in a suit over commissioners’ prayer practices from 2007 to 2013.

The case specifically focused on commissioners’ ability to give sectarian prayers and the manner in which the prayers were delivered. The suit worked its way through federal courts until all 15 judges for the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2017 ruled by a 10-5 count that the prayers were unconstitutional. Commissioners asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case, but the nation’s highest court declined to do so in June 2018, upholding the lower court ruling.

Fees awarded to attorneys for Lund, Montag-Siegel and Voelker represent the only significant costs to county government in the suit, as commissioners were represented for free by the National Center for Life and Liberty. The fees will be paid from the county’s fund balance, which is partially a savings fund.

“We are obviously very unhappy with this and I think a few of us are, probably, physically sick to our stomach that we have to do this, but this is the risk that we took,” County Commissioners Chairman Greg Edds told the Salisbury Post.

Asked about the effect of the withdrawal from the fund balance, Edds pointed to a financial audit presented Monday, which showed Rowan County’s total fund balance increased by $325,158 from the 2017 fiscal year to the 2018 fiscal year. The county’s unassigned fund balance — which can be used for any purpose, including funding general government operations in tough times — increased by $187,934 to a total of $18.28 million during the same period.

Edds called the ACLU “bullies” for its role in the Rowan County prayer suit as well as other lawsuits, particularly those in which small communities have been involved. Though, Edds did not cite other specific lawsuit examples.

“They make a living in going after other small communities in federal courts that are sympathetic to their leanings and they have almost unlimited funding that scares small communities to death,” Edds said. “So, communities just fold.”

By fighting the suit and twice voting unanimously to appeal rulings to a higher court, Edds said, commissioners weren’t simply fighting for their ability to give sectarian prayers before meetings. Commissioners “stood up for” elected officials of all faiths, he said.

“This was about elected officials, regardless of their faith tradition, being able to exercise their First Amendment rights,” he said. “We’ve said over and over that, as people of different faiths earn their ability to take these seats, that we would respect their right to provide any prayer that they want to do.”

Monday’s vote, effectively, spells the end of the prayer lawsuit, which was brought by Lund, Montag-Siegel and Voelker more than five years ago.

In a similar case, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that commissioners in Jackson County, Michigan, did not violate the constitution by offering prayers at the start of meetings. Like Rowan County’s suit, the Supreme Court in 2018 declined to take an appeal of the 6th Circuit case. Edds said that decision leaves in place two different precedents in different parts of the country. Eventually, the matter of sectarian prayer by elected officials before government meetings will be resolved, but Rowan County won’t get its money back, Edds said.

County Attorney Jay Dees said legal precedent was in Rowan County’s favor and the many letters of support submitted to federal courts — known as amicus briefs — were proof of that.

“It’s important to note that (Rowan County) was not the underdog, wasting money and tilting at windmills,” Dees said. “And, I believe that given another year or two, there will be another decision that makes its way to the Supreme Court.”

In a statement provided to the Salisbury Post, the North Carolina ACLU said it was glad courts agreed with its clients and, ultimately, ruled in their favor.

“As Judge (J. Harvie) Wilkinson wrote in this case, ‘Free religious exercise can only remain free if not influenced and directed by the hand of the state,’” the ACLU said.

Moving forward, Rowan County will continue to use a volunteer chaplain. At present, that’s Rowan County Sheriff’s Office Chaplain Michael Taylor. Edds said commissioners have not discussed changing to a different chaplain.

County Attorney Jay Dees said commissioners could look at ways to offer prayers before meetings within the bounds of court decisions, but Edds said commissioners would not opt to do so.