Claim city of Florida not satisfied by Supreme Court in case of atheists
2023.03.06 12:32
Claim city of Florida not satisfied by Supreme Court in case of atheists
By Ray Johnson
Budrigannews.com – On Monday, the Supreme Court of the United States declined to hear a lawsuit filed by atheists against a Florida city for holding a prayer vigil in response to gun violence that killed three children. The city claimed that this was in violation of constitutional restrictions on government involvement in religion.
The city of Ocala tried to overturn a lower court’s decision allowing the plaintiffs, supported by the American Humanist Association, to sue for legal harms they said they suffered at the 2014 vigil where uniformed police chaplains preached a Judeo-Christian message. The justices turned down the city’s appeal. Government involvement in religion is limited by the “establishment clause” of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Clarence Thomas, a conservative justice, opposed the decision to deny the case.
The prayer vigil, which was held in response to a series of shootings in which three children were struck by stray bullets, was helped organized and carried out by Ocala city officials. On its Facebook, the Ocala Police Department (NASDAQ:) Page published a letter that called for “fervent prayer” to reduce community crime and was co-signed by the police chief and an activist from a nearby Baptist church.
According to the plaintiffs’ filings in the case, police chaplains dressed in uniform from the Ocala Police Department “preached Judeo-Christian religion to the crowd in a style consistent with revivalist and evangelical religion,” “participated in religious worship,” and encouraged the crowd to engage in “responsive chanting.”
The American Humanist Association, which states on its website that it wants “to bring about a progressive society where being good without a god is an accepted and respected way to live life,” and a number of its members filed a federal court lawsuit. Ocala was alleged to have broken the establishment clause in the suit.
According to the court papers filed by the plaintiffs, the police department’s participation in the prayer vigil “was coercive in that it pressured community members to accept theistic religious views” and treated people who didn’t believe in religion as “outsiders and second-class citizens.”
In 2018, a judge sided with the plaintiffs and gave them each $1 in nominal damages. In light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in June 2022 expanding religious rights in the case of a Washington state public high school football coach who had been suspended for refusing to stop leading Christian prayers with players on the field after games, the judgment was overturned in July by the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
But the 11th Circuit decided that Lucinda Hale, at least one of the plaintiffs, had the right to sue because the prayer vigil had caused an injury that could be seen legally. The city then went to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Hale has argued that the city hurt her by violating the establishment clause by favoring religion and excluding atheists like herself from the one-hour prayer vigil. The plaintiffs in the case are Hale and Art Rojas, and the defendant is the city.
In its appeal, Ocala urged the justices to reject the claim that the plaintiffs had suffered legally recognizable injuries as offended viewers of religious messages. The city claimed that the plaintiffs’ voluntary attendance at the prayer vigil weakened their legal position.
The wall that separates church and state has been torn down by the conservative-majority Supreme Court in recent years, eroding American legal traditions that prevent government officials from promoting any particular faith.
Jay Sekulow, an attorney with the conservative Christian legal group American Center for Law and Justice, represented the city. Sekulow defended former President Donald Trump in one of his two impeachment trials before the U.S. Senate.
