The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said last week that members of a Southern California city council can open their meetings with a prayer.
The three-judge panel ruled on March 26 that the Lancaster City Council’s invocation policy is constitutional because it allows for the opening prayer to be said by any faith or religion. The prayer is said by a volunteer cleric of any faith who submits an application to the city clerk.
The lawsuit was filed by Shelley Rubin and Maureen Feller. Rubin is the widow of late Jewish Defense League head Irv Rubin, who won a ruling 10 years ago that invocations given by members of a local ministerial association at the beginning of Burbank City Council meetings violated a clause of the First Amendment.
Rubin and Feller filed their suit after attending a meeting in 2010, when the opening prayer, according to the Metropolitan News-Enterprise, concluded with: “Bring our minds to know you and in the precious, holy and righteous and matchless name of Jesus I pray this prayer. Amen and Amen. God bless you.” That invocation was given by Bishop Henry Hearns, a former mayor of Lancaster, a desert city in northern Los Angeles County. — ap & j. staff