Newswire

Bill would allow public prayer by officials

Bill Would Allow Public Prayer

AIKEN -- U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett, R-S.C., announced plans Thursday to introduce legislation called the Public Prayer Protection Act.

The bill would allow elected and appointed officials "to pray in public as they see fit, no matter what their religion," Mr. Barrett, who represents Aiken County, said in a telephone conference call from Washington, D.C.

The bill also says all "establishment-clause" cases involving prayer by public officials should be decided by state rather than federal courts.

While various court challenges to the First Amendment nationwide played into his decision to sponsor the legislation, Mr. Barrett said, no particular case prompted him to action.

"It's something we've been thinking about for a long time," the congressman said.

In recent years, lawyers across the country have argued cases about the placement of Ten Commandments plaques at government buildings and the use of "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance in federal courts.

The U.S. Supreme Court in June denied a petition by the town of Great Falls, S.C., to overturn a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision in a public prayer case, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina Web site.

In that case, the circuit court upheld a 2003 lower court ruling that the town council violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment by invoking the name Jesus Christ in prayer at public meetings. The clause prohibits the preference of one religion over another.

U.S. District Court Judge Cameron Currie had previously ruled that the town of Great Falls is "permanently enjoined from invoking the name of a specific deity associated with any one specific faith or belief in the prayers at the Town Council meetings," according to the ACLU.

Meanwhile, Mr. Barrett acknowledged that a non-Christian at a public meeting might feel uncomfortable when an official prays "in Jesus' name."

However, Mr. Barrett said, "I would hope that they would be tolerant of me because I would certainly be tolerant of them."


http://chronicle.augusta.com/s
tories/111805/met_5739519.shtml

Posted by Editor at November 19, 2005 06:59 PM