Cobb County, GA - Judge Refuses to Issue Injunction in Public Prayer Case, Orde

[Yisrael]

Cobb County, GA - A federal judge has ruled that officials in a suburban county violated the Constitution in the way they selected clergy to offer prayers before certain public meetings, but refused to issue an injunction since the practice has been made more ecumenical.
Instead, U.S. District Judge Richard Story, in his decision, ordered Cobb County, near Atlanta, to pay $1 to seven residents who sued over the prayer practice.

The residents had challenged the constitutionality of Cobb County's practice of beginning meetings of its Board of Commissioners and its Planning Commission with invocational prayers delivered by invited guests.
They weren't against the right to pray, but rather the sectarian content of some of the prayers and the manner in which guests were selected to lead the prayers - clergy were picked in part by thumbing through the Yellow Pages.

The judge said, the Planning Commission violated the Constitution because, in selecting clergy to give prayers before meetings, a deputy clerk excluded clergies from some religions like Jews and Muslims. But Story said that practice was stopped in 2005, prior to the lawsuit, and has not recurred. [AP]