Opening public meetings with prayer has been under much fire recently. The county commission in Rowan County is the latest to have its approach questioned.
A federal judge is ordering Rowan County commissioners to stop opening their meetings with prayers that almost always referred to Christianity.
U.S. District Judge James Beaty Jr. ruled Monday that the way the commissioners opened meetings with prayers violated the U.S. Constitution's prohibition against mixing church and state.
The commissioners themselves delivered prayers before meetings. Beaty ruled that practice distinguished the case from a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year upholding prayers before public meetings as long as officials make a good-faith effort at inclusion.
The American Civil Liberates Union sued the commission in 2013 on behalf of three people who complained commissioners were alienating members of the community by opening their meeting with a prayer for a specific religion.
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