David Williamson, Et Al.v.Brevard County
Brevard County opened its board meetings with religious invocations and allowed commissioners broad discretion to choose speakers. Secular humanist and atheist organizations challenged the practice after commissioners favored familiar monotheistic religions and excluded or scrutinized other belief systems because of their religious content. The district court entered an injunction, and the Eleventh Circuit reviewed the selection process. The court held that legislative prayer may be permissible under the Establishment Clause, but the government may not discriminate among religions when selecting invocation speakers. Brevard County’s process favored some faiths, categorically excluded others, and therefore violated the First Amendment’s requirement of denominational neutrality. The court did not decide whether the plaintiffs had to be allowed to deliver a nonreligious invocation. It affirmed the finding that the existing selection process was unlawful, vacated the injunction to the extent it went further than that holding, and remanded so the district court could craft narrower relief.
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