Written by Don Byrd
That’s the legal bill the Pittsylvania County, Virginia Board of Supervisors will likely owe the state’s ACLU for the cost of bringing the Board to court for opening meetings with sectarian prayer. A magistrate judge made the recommendation for attorney’s fees earlier this week. As the editorial board of the Lynchburg News and Advance notes today, the costly effort of the County’s Board was unnecessary.
The taxpayers of Pittsylvania County likely will be the ones to take it on the chin as a result of the supervisors’ battle for sectarian Christian prayer.
Federal court precedents have made it crystal clear the Board of Supervisors was on the losing end of its argument to open meetings with a Christian prayer, but the board ignored that. It decided to fight the objections of a county resident who had asked that the board stop opening its meetings with such prayer in the name of Jesus Christ.
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It didn’t have to cost the taxpayers $53,230 — not if the supervisors had acknowledged that pushing a prayer invoking Jesus Christ at board meetings was but a step away from establishing a state religion.
Political officials like to posture to demonstrate their commitment to faith and religious kinship with a majority of voters. But this instinct is misguided when it leads to a misuse of government. When such actions fly in the face of clearly established legal principles, such posturing is a costly waste of taxpayer money. Not to mention a violation of their religious freedom.
