Lady sues to get prayer to stop

October 24, 2009 by 100
Filed under Heaven or Hell, LAW

source: abclocal.go.com

There’s another battle brewing in the fight over the separation over church and state. A Houston woman says she believes the city council is violating the constitution by beginning their meetings with a prayer.

Plaintiff Kay Staley and her attorney, Randall Kallinen, have slapped the city of Houston with a federal lawsuit, arguing that the long held tradition of saying a prayer before city council meetings is unconstitutional and they are prepared to take the suit all the way to the supreme court.

The lawsuit says by allowing open prayer, whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim or any other religion, it violates the separation of church and state.

Kay Staley is no stranger to fighting local governments. In 2003 she sued Harris County, Texas, claiming its display of a bible monument in the courthouse was a violation of the constitutional separation of church and state. In 2006, after a 3 year battle, the US 5th District Court of Appeals agreed with her and ordered the monument which hoisted the King James Bible removed. Now Kay Staley has filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Houston, alleging that the city council’s long-standing practice of saying prayers before meetings also violates the Constitution.

“Just because it always has been doesn’t make it right,” said Staley in an ABC Eyewitness News interview. “There are lots of people who feel exactly the same way I do. Most people are afraid to come out and say anything because of their jobs or their friends.“

Don Cheatham, the city’s Sr. Asst. District Attorney, is reviewing the suit and examining the council’s current policies and practices. Mike Sullivan, a councilmember also interviewed by Eyewitness News, said that he thought the lawsuit was a publicity stunt and plans to vigorously defend his participation in public prayer at city hall.

Kay Staley, who received a considerable amount of hate mail and death threats during her last suit, is equally determined to press her case. I think prayer ought to be a private matter.” She said. “I don’t want anyone praying for me.“