Florida: Atheists sue over pre-meeting prayers

By JOSÉ PATIÑO GIRONA | The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 12, 2010

Updated: 07/13/2010 08:34 am

Related Links

* Group protests Tampa council
* Atheists of Florida website

LAKELAND - The Atheists of Florida will hold a press conference this morning about the group's lawsuit asking the city of Lakeland to end its invocations before city council meetings.

According to the suit, the group wants to "protect individual civil and Constitutional rights, including the right to be free from government intrusion into, entanglement with, and endorsement of religious matters."

The organization, which filed the suit Monday, suggests in the lawsuit that the city could hold a moment of silence, in which those attending could remain seated. This would allow attendees to pray, while also providing relief to those not wanting to participate in the formal invocation.

"That way no one is uncomfortable," said EllenBeth Wachs, director of the Lakeland chapter for the Atheists of Florida. "It's not government's business to tell me what to do in my religious life."

. . . .

The organization said it spoke at City Council hearings in the spring about this issue and two representatives had a private meeting with Mayor Gow Fields.

Wachs said the atheists have been met with resistance and some people have been condescending at the public meetings. In March, the group had a private meeting with
Fields, who remained adamant that the invocation was going to continue, Wachs said.

Atheists, Mayor Address Suit
News conferences discuss challenge to city's use of prayer in meetings.

<snippage>

By Cary McMullen
LEDGER RELIGION EDITOR

Published: Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 9:22 p.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 9:22 p.m.

( page 2 of 3 )

LAKELAND | The battle for hearts, minds and souls continued Tuesday between a regional atheist organization and the city of Lakeland.

Atheists of Florida and Lakeland Mayor Gow Fields held separate news conferences to talk about the lawsuit filed by the atheists Monday in U.S. District Court in Tampa. The suit challenges the city's practice of opening its meetings with a prayer said by a local member of the clergy.

EllenBeth Wachs, director of the Lakeland chapter of Atheists of Florida, and the organization's lawyer, Eric Husby of Tampa, spoke to the media in a sweltering parking lot along noisy Combee Road underneath a billboard the atheist group rented. The billboard reads "One nation, indivisible" and is intended to protest the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Husby repeated points previously made by the group at City Commission meetings:

The invocations amount to unconstitutional government sponsorship of religion and discriminate against nonbelievers.

The fact that all but a few of the prayers offered in the past few years were given by Christian clergy demonstrates an intent to prefer Christianity over other faiths.

"(The commission) narrows the field of religions allowed to participate. It's not representative of the community," Husby said. "Governments should maintain neutrality."

At his news conference later in the day, Fields did not comment on specifics of the lawsuit because city officials have not yet seen the official documents. He read a brief, prepared statement in which he said the city is "clearly at odds with the beliefs that the atheists have.

"We have designed our practice after what the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled to be constitutional. We have followed that practice. This will be a long, drawn-out matter. At the appropriate time, our attorneys will be responding," Fields said.

After the city is formally served with the suit, it will have "probably 20 days" to respond, said Lakeland City Attorney Tim McCausland.

He did not speculate on what the response might be without seeing the lawsuit, but one option would be to ask for more time.

McCausland said the cost of defending the suit will come from the city's budget as "a cost of doing business" but "it won't be cheap."

"It depends on how long it goes on. Most of the (legal) issues are pretty settled," he said.

The city will use lawyer Mark Miller of Gray Robinson as outside counsel to handle the lawsuit, McCausland said.

"Litigation in federal court is pretty complicated. It's not something we're set up to do," he said.

A key part of the legal argument may turn on how the clergy who offer the invocations are chosen. An 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling, Pelphrey v. Cobb County (Ga.), stipulates sectarian prayers may be acceptable as long as no religious groups are excluded from offering them.

Husby said Tuesday that numerous faith groups, including Buddhists, Mormons and Unitarians, have not given invocations.