[R-G] THEOCRATIC UPDATE

[Nicholas Morcinek]

THEOCRATIC UPDATE

ASSOCIATED PRESS - The Utah Supreme Court has heard arguments and taken
under advisement the 8-year-old suit by a Murray atheist whose proposed
prayer was rejected by the Murray City Council. 

Tom Snyder, 71, first filed a federal lawsuit against Murray in 1994 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.". . . 

Attorney Brian Barnard, who represents Snyder, cites a 1993 Utah Supreme
Court decision upholding prayer before Salt Lake City Council meetings.
He contends that decision ensures Murray cannot discriminate on the
content of the prayer because it has established a free-speech forum.

http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=17220