Around the states

Church & State, Mar 2002

AU BULLETIN

Georgia Prayer Breakfast Must Be Private, Says Court

A federal court has ruled that a Georgia town's prayer breakfast can continue, so long as there was no official sponsorship by the local government.

On Jan. 7, U.S. District Judge Thomas Thrash ruled that East Point, Ga., can proceed with the community's five-year tradition of having a prayer breakfast featuring local civic and religious leaders. Local officials, however, must not use city funds, employees, facilities or supplies to subsidize the events.

With support from the American Civil Liberties Union, five East Point residents sued the city over the prayer breakfasts, arguing that the official religious exercises "made nonProtestants feel like outsiders in their own city." The residents had asked Thrash to issue a restraining order to prevent the event from taking place.

Thrash refused to stop the breakfasts, but agreed that any official support would be unconstitutional.

According to a report in The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, City Manager Michael Miller had acknowledged that city employees had used city time and funds from the city treasury to promote the breakfasts in the past.

Thrash, in his Newman v. City of East Point ruling, said the sponsorship must end. As part of the decision, the judge also said the name of the event must be changed from the "Mayor's Prayer Breakfast," to the "Community prayer breakfast," to avoid the appearance of official sanction.