A unanimous panel of the 7th Circuit ruled that Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke violated the religious liberty rights of his officers by repeatedly offering religious presentations at mandatory events.
Clarke invited the newly formed Fellowship of the Christian Centurions to address deputies at 16 roll call meetings in May of 2006, after the group also spoke to the Sheriff's Department leadership conference. The group offered peer support for law enforcement and discussed how officers could "impact others for Christ," according to the ruling from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago.
One of the Centurion speakers quoted the Bible in a talk to deputies, saying that God "established government and that people in authority are ministers of God assigned to promote good and punish evil."
In the opinion, Judge Ann Claire Williams discusses (pdf) the importance of a missed opportunity Sheriff Clarke had to address the issue. (my emph.)
In this case, the Centurions gave a heavily Christian-focused presentation at a mandatory conference for government employees, and the Sheriff subsequently invited them to present at mandatory roll calls during work hours, granting them unfiltered access to a captive audience of subordinates. At each roll call, they were personally introduced by the Sheriff’s command staff and were permitted to distribute additional Christian-focused literature. Even more telling was the Sheriff’s refusal to cease the presentations
after some of the deputies complained of the Centurions’ proselytizing. He took no steps to disentangle himsel for the Department from any of the religious messages, and his actions, at the least, appeared to place the Centurions’ in the same category as the other “partnering” organizations, like Johnson’s Bike Company—all of whom presumably received the Department’s approval.
