Times-Dispatch Staff Writer

A federal court upheld Fredericksburg City Council’s ban on sectarian prayer today, setting the stage for another possible appeal in the case of a councilman who wants to end his session-opening prayers with "in the name of Jesus Christ."

A three-member panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, having heard arguments earlier this year, unanimously rejected council member Hashmel Turner’s claim that the policy restricts his free speech rights.

The ruling was written by retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who was a guest member of the 4th Circuit panel that heard oral arguments in March.

"Turner was not forced to offer a prayer that violated his deeply held religious beliefs," she wrote in the brief. Turner "remains free to pray on his own behalf, in nongovernmental endeavors, in the manner dictated by his conscience."

John W. Whitehead, president of the Charlottesville-based civil-liberties group The Rutherford Institute, represented Councilman Hashmel C. Turner. Whitehead said the institute will appeal the court’s decision.

"The government can’t write prayers for people and they can’t tell people how to pray," he said.

Kent Willis, executive director of ACLU of Virginia, which prodded the council to ban sectarian prayer, called today’s ruling "a victory for religious freedom. Precedent is pretty clear: Government prayer cannot show a preference for one religion over another."

Carl Tobias, law professor at the University of Richmond School of Law, said, "I think the 4th Circuit got it right. If it’s a legislative prayer, you can give those prayers, but they have to be nondenominational — that comports with the First Amendment preventing government-established religion."

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