Posted on: Saturday, April 12, 2003

Atheist's 'prayer' gets court approval

By Patty Henetz
Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY — If atheist Tom Snyder still wants to pray before the Murray City Council and ask Mother in Heaven for deliverance from stupid politicians, he has the blessing of the Utah Supreme Court.

The court ruled yesterday that if Murray officials want to pray during government-sponsored events, the opportunity to offer the prayer must be equally accessible to all who ask.

The Supreme Court's 4-1 ruling reversed the dismissal of a lawsuit that Snyder, 71, filed in state court in 1999.

"I'm pleased as punch," Snyder said in a news release. "There is more than one school of thought as to religion in Utah. Thanks to the Supreme Court for reaffirming that constitutional protection. There should be no government preference for one religion over another or a preference for religion over non-religion."

Snyder and his lawyer, Brian Barnard, have been pursuing the Murray prayer lawsuit since 1994, when Snyder first filed suit in federal court against the city for allowing other pre-meeting prayers but refusing to let him offer a prayer addressed to "Our Mother, who art in heaven."

Among other things, the prayer asked for deliverance "from the evil of forced religious worship now sought to be imposed upon the people ... by the actions of misguided, weak and stupid politicians, who abuse power in their own self-righteousness."

The federal judge dismissed the lawsuit; Snyder took it to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. While holding that Snyder's prayer didn't deserve protection under the U.S. Constitution, the appeals court preserved Snyder's claims based on Utah state law.

In 1999, Snyder took his case to state court, where District Judge Stephen Henriod dismissed it. Yesterday's high court ruling reversed Henriod.

Richard Van Wagoner, the attorney who represented the city before the high court, said he and his clients were disappointed. "Murray City has been placed in a constitutional dilemma," he said.

Friday's ruling was based on a 1993 decision that upheld Salt Lake City's right to hear prayers during official events as long as the opportunity to deliver the prayer was nondiscriminatory.