Friday, Nov. 13, 2009

McMaster vows to defend towns' prayers

COLUMBIA -- The day after a federal judge chastised state officials for legislation that would create Christian license plates, S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster released a campaign video offering to defend any government body in the state whose Christian prayers at meetings prompt a lawsuit.

McMaster sided with the town of Great Falls after it was sued successfully over its town council prayers. A panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2004 prohibited the Great Falls Town Council from opening its meetings with a prayer that mentions Jesus Christ. The panel said such prayers amount to an unconstitutional government advancement of one religion.

McMaster filed a brief and the town appealed to the Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case.

McMaster also filed a brief in the license plate case on behalf of the state.

U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie, who also ruled in the prayer case, on Wednesday found that the "I Believe" plates violated constitutional prohibitions against governments endorsing specific religions, calling the resulting litigation "unnecessary and expensive."

A day later, McMaster's gubernatorial campaign posted a video and issued a press release in which McMaster complained that "liberals are using an increasingly sympathetic federal judiciary to re-write our Constitution to ban any and all religious expression in our schools, our government and the public square."

McMaster singled out the American Civil Liberties Union, which wasn't involved in the license plate case, saying he has told town councils and others around the state: "If the ACLU sues you, call me up. We'll defend you. We'll help you."

Victoria Middleton, executive director of the South Carolina ACLU office, said the organization believes in religious freedom.

"We believe in an individual's right to practice their faith or no faith at all," she said. "But when the government goes out of the way to favor a particular religious viewpoint, it should be held accountable. We think religious liberty thrives best when the government stays out of it."

McMaster told a Greer rally, according to Currie, that the state usually loses such lawsuits. McMaster said in his video Tuesday that he believes the federal courts will eventually change.

"I believe the U.S. Supreme Court will recognize that they've gone off the deep end with their rulings against prayer," McMaster said.

"And they will come back to realize that the Constitution of the state and the Constitution of the United States provides that people have a freedom of religion. And that means they can pray wherever they want to -- however they want to -- including, of course, to Jesus, as they did in Great Falls."