District Court Enjoins Sectarian Invocations At County Council Meetings

In "Hake v. Carroll County Maryland," (D MD, March 26, 2014), a Maryland federal district court granted a preliminary injunction barring Carroll County, Maryland commissioners opening their commission sessions with sectarian prayer. Currently sessions are opened with a prayer led by one of the commissioners, on a rotating basis. The Board's voluntary guidelines for commissioners calls for them to "refrain from using Jesus, Jesus Christ, Savior, Prince of Peace, Lamb of God and the like." However, during 2011-2012, at least 40% of the invocations contained sectarian Christian references, while no prayers made non-Christian sectarian references. In finding that plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits of their Establishment Clause claim, the court said in part:

Although the podium guidelines discourage sectarian references, the Board has made no effort to curb the frequent sectarian references made by its own Commissioners.... At this time, the record indicates that the prayers invoked by Commissioners before Board meetings advance one religion to the exclusion of others.The court ruled that Commissioners can continue to deliver non-sectarian invocations, but are enjoined from invoking the name of a specific deity associated with any specific faith or belief in their opining prayers. The American Humanist Association in a press release calls the decision "a major victory for separation of church and state." The Baltimore Sun reports on the decision. The U.S. Supreme Court this term has heard oral arguments in a case raising similar issues, and will decide the case within the next few months. (See prior posting.)

UPDATE: A March 27 release from the American Humanist Association says that a Carroll County commissioner defied the preliminary injunction and delivered a sectarian prayer at a county council meeting one day after the preliminary injunction was ordered. The AHA sent a contempt warning letter (full text) to counsel stating in part: "As a courtesy, we are going to refrain from seeking contempt charges against the commissioner in this one instance, in the hopes that today's behavior was simply an emotional outburst made without the benefit of serious consideration of the rights of plaintiffs and others. She should understand, however, that any continued defiance of the court order will leave us with no choice but to seek a contempt order."