Replies

This was a bad ruling. The appeals court did not have the authority in my opinion. In 1983 the Supreme Court ruled in the Marsh v. Chambers case that:

The Nebraska Legislature's chaplaincy practice does not violate the Establishment Clause. Pp. 786-795.
(a) The practice of opening sessions of Congress with prayer has continued without interruption for almost 200 years ever since the First Congress drafted the First Amendment, and a similar practice has been followed for more than a century in Nebraska and many other states. While historical patterns, standing alone, cannot justify contemporary violations of constitutional guarantees, historical evidence in the context of this case sheds light not only on what the drafters of the First Amendment intended the Establishment Clause to mean but also on how they thought that Clause applied to the chaplaincy practice authorized by the First Congress. In applying the First Amendment to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment, it would be incongruous to interpret the Clause as imposing more stringent First Amendment limits on the states than the draftsmen imposed on the Federal Government. In light of the history, there can be no doubt that the practice of opening legislative sessions with prayer has become part of the fabric of our society. To invoke divine guidance on a public body entrusted with making the laws is not, in these circumstances, a violation of the Establishment Clause; it is simply a tolerable acknowledgment of beliefs widely held among the people of this country. Pp. 786-792.
(b) Weighed against the historical background, the facts that a clergyman of only one denomination has been selected by the Nebraska Legislature [463 U.S. 783, 784] for 16 years, that the chaplain is paid at public expense, and that the prayers are in the Judeo-Christian tradition do not serve to invalidate Nebraska's practice. Pp. 792-795.

***....Also Monday, Wynne addressed the council and reminded its members that her lawyer would have waived all legal fees if the council had agreed to stop giving Christian prayers and not pursue its appeal to the 4th Circuit. Wynne, who said public enmity toward her is growing, asked the council to encourage town residents to stop putting the blame on her.

"This isn't right," Wynne said. "This could put me in further physical jeopardy."

But none of the town council members looked up or responded as Wynne put copies of her written statement on the desk before them.....***

Do as I say!!!

.....The Christian prayers given before Town Council meetings in Great Falls were challenged in 2001 by Darla Kaye Wynne, a self-described Wiccan high priestess. Wynne, 41, a former topless dancer from Alaska who moved to this tiny South Carolina town seven years ago....

This woman is too much!