Firm Foundation

Press Release

Former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore and the Foundation for Moral Law, a religious liberties legal organization in Montgomery, Alabama, filed an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit today defending prayers offered before meetings of the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners in North Carolina. In a suit brought by the ACLU, a federal trial court held that the County’s prayer policy violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment because, essentially, too many prayers mentioned Jesus Christ and were therefore “sectarian.” The County is now appealing that ruling.

Read the Foundation’s brief in Joyner v. Forsyth County.

Judge Roy Moore noted about this case:

“Despite the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court opens with ‘God save the United States and this Honorable Court,’ and despite the fact that both houses of Congress open with prayer every morning, the ACLU still brought a lawsuit stopping prayer before meetings in Forsyth County, North Carolina. What’s worse is that a federal judge has gone along with the radical secular agenda. Forsyth County, and the rest of the country, prays because we need the wisdom and guidance of God—certainly much more than we need the ACLU and judicial activists on the bench.”

The Foundation brief explains that the Framers of the Constitution, through the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, meant to prevent the establishment of a national denomination; but they did not intend to stop prayer and other acknowledgments of God. Prayers at county meetings did not fall within the definition of a “law respecting an establishment of religion” under the First Amendment. Moreover, when judges start deciding what prayers are “sectarian” and what are not, the judiciary is engaging in theological and philosophical questions outside its jurisdiction or expertise. Prayers offered at public meetings do not coerce anyone and, instead, respect those who believe prayer is good for our society and government.