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Page: Profile: Wren's Nest News Local
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Article: 19486
[Civil]
Date Posted:
3/20/2008
7:10:42 am EDT
Wvox Stats
Views: 5,273
RSS: 16,309
Comments: 3
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Prayer Led By Fredericksburg Council Reviewed
Author: Kiran Krishnamurthy Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA)
Title: PRAYER LED BY FREDERICKSBURG COUNCIL REVIEWED
Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor got straight to the point yesterday during a federal appeals hearing in a prayer case involving a Fredericksburg City Council member who sued his colleagues.
"Is there any case you've found of legislative prayer not evaluated as government speech?" she asked attorney Johan Conrod, who is representing Fredericksburg Councilman Hashmel C. Turner Jr., who also is a Baptist minister and claims his individual free-speech and religious rights were violated.
"No," Conrod replied before the three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond.
"I can't, either," observed O'Connor, who as a retired justice has the opportunity to sit on appellate panels.
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Community Thoughts: There are 3 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| Why Didn't He Simply Mention God? | Mar 21st. at 12:51:25 am EDT
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Jenna (Cary, North Carolina) - Email Me
Even the most hardcore atheist wouldn't have much of a problem with a simple prayer asking for the guidance of God or a Higher Power. That would had fulfilled the Baptist minister's faith (even though Christians don't seem to pray much to God, from what I've seen. He kind of get the boot in favour of JC, hence the reason why Christianity is not the continuation of Judaism, but I digress) and would not had endorsed any particular faith. But no, he had to pull the whole "Jesus is the only way and Saviour" schtick. How would he had felt if a Muslim led a prayer praising Allah for giving Mohammed His perfect word? Would he had bowed his head in reverent silence or would he had protested? I'm betting the latter. It's time for the Christians to realise that it's not 1950 anymore where minorities stayed "in their places" and didn't protest exclusion simply because they had fewer numbers. Grow up.
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| Effective Penalties Needed | Mar 20th. at 3:48:19 pm EDT
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Terry (Irvington, Virginia) - Email Me
There is no real question of law here. This has been an ongoing cat and mouse game for several years, where litigation, action by fellow Council members, nor elections have removed a thug abusing government powers from a position of doing that.
Turner has no rights as an individual to deprive citizens of their rights under color of law when acting in his official capacity. He's perfectly free to resign if he's unwilling or unable to competently act as a government agent, within the limits that follow.
What's needed here is an effective remedy to head off these abuses far sooner, and hold corrupt voters liable when they're ultimately behind these problems. The law needs process to treat Turner as a civil rights felon personally liable for damages to anyone whose rights were violated, and to personally pay costs and fees to defense counsel for their work to protect against him. A bit trickier is how to increase taxes enough to raise consciousness among voters who enabled Turner, such that even though they have a right to desire having a thug in office, they're not given a free pass to act so recklessly.
Perhaps Turner qualifies for a psych workup, as a danger to himself or others, defined around his delusions of grandeur and willingness to abuse the powers of office? He clearly is unable to perform the duties of government and at the least should be impeached, based on his repeated behaviors.
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| Public Prayers.... | Mar 20th. at 1:27:34 pm EDT
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Ardeith Carter (Zephyrhills, Florida) - Email Me
I don't think anyone should have the right to show off his/her piety in a public meeting. It's just one more opportunity for some to demonstrate how very religious they are. They weren't elected to their governmental offices to lead others to religion; they were elected to do the work of the governmental group.
If they truly feel the need for spiritual guidance before such a meeting, they should follow the directions in their holy book and go into their private place to call upon their god for help.
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