On the same day as the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Town of Greece v. Galloway, No. 12-696, 572 U.S. ___ (2014), the court in Hake v. Carroll County, Maryland, No. WDQ-13-1312 (Dist. Maryland 2014), vacated a preliminary injunction it entered in March in which it enjoined Carroll County from opening its board meetings with sectarian prayers involving the names of specific deities or faiths.  Unlike Greece, NY, prayers in the County are led by commissioners on a rotating basis, and not by religious clergy.

Plaintiffs sued the County alleging that it violated the Establishment Clause by promoting Christianity over other religions in that the pre-board meeting prayers “are frequently Christian in nature, making express sectarian references, such as to Jesus Christ.”  The District Court entered the preliminary injunction upon its finding that Plaintiffs were likely to succeed on the merits of their claim, since (1) the Board’s only official policy concerning the opening prayer is found in the form of voluntary guidelines that guide prayer givers: “Refrain from using Jesus, Jesus Christ, Savior, Prince of Peace, Lamb of God and the like,” and (2) upon the court’s review, at least 40% of all audible and complete recordings of the prayers include sectarian references, all from the Christian faith, meaning that the commissioners themselves appear to have violated the guidelines.  In reaching this conclusion, the District Court relied on Fourth Circuit precedent in Joyner v. Forsyth Cnty., N.C., 653 F.3d 341, 349 (4th Cir. 2011), that “the content of the prayers is a critical factor in determining whether a legislative prayer practice violates the Establishment Clause.”

In vacating the preliminary injunction, the District Court states only that it does so “[c]onsistent with the Supreme Court’s decision” in Town of Greece.  Although the District Court does not elaborate any further, its prior ruling appears to be at odds with the Supreme Court’s ruling that sectarian references in legislative prayers may be constitutional if the municipality makes an honest effort to allow prayers from any faith, does not force or coerce the public into participating in the prayers, and does not promote one religion over another.

The District Court’s decision entering the preliminary injunction can be accessed here and its order vacating the injunction here.

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Photo of Evan Seeman Evan Seeman

Evan J. Seeman is a lawyer in Robinson+Cole’s Hartford office and focuses his practice on land use, real estate, environmental, and regulatory matters, representing local governments, developers and advocacy groups. He has spoken and written about RLUIPA, and was a lead author of…

Evan J. Seeman is a lawyer in Robinson+Cole’s Hartford office and focuses his practice on land use, real estate, environmental, and regulatory matters, representing local governments, developers and advocacy groups. He has spoken and written about RLUIPA, and was a lead author of an amicus curiae brief at the petition stage before the United States Supreme Court in a RLUIPA case entitled City of San Leandro v. International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.

Evan serves as the Secretary/Treasurer of the APA’s Planning & Law Division. He also serves as the Chair of the Planning & Zoning Section of the Connecticut Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Section, and is the former Co-Chair of its Municipal Law Section. He has been named to the Connecticut Super Lawyers® list as a Rising Star in the area of Land Use Law for 2013 and 2014. He received his B.A. in political science and Russian studies (with honors) from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, where he was selected as the President’s Fellow in the Department of Modern Languages and Literature. Evan received his Juris Doctor at the University of Connecticut School of Law, where he served on the Connecticut Law Review. While in law school, he interned with the Connecticut Office of the Attorney General in the environmental department, and served as a judicial intern for the judges of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Court. Following law school, Evan clerked for the Honorable F. Herbert Gruendel of the Connecticut Appellate Court.

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Photo of Dwight Merriam Dwight Merriam

Dwight H. Merriam founded Robinson+Cole’s Land Use Group in 1978. He represents land owners, developers, governments and individuals in land use matters, with a focus on defending governments in RLUIPA cases. Dwight is a Fellow and Past President of the American Institute of…

Dwight H. Merriam founded Robinson+Cole’s Land Use Group in 1978. He represents land owners, developers, governments and individuals in land use matters, with a focus on defending governments in RLUIPA cases. Dwight is a Fellow and Past President of the American Institute of Certified Planners, a former Director of the American Planning Association (APA), a former chair of APA’s Planning and Law Division, Immediate Past Chair of the American Bar Association’s Section of State and Local Government Law, Chair of the Institute of Local Government Studies at the Center for American and International Law, a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, a member of the Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute National Advisory Board, a Fellow of the Connecticut Bar Foundation, a Counselor of Real Estate, a member of the Anglo-American Real Property Institute, and a Fellow of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers.

He teaches land use law at the University of Connecticut School of Law and at Vermont Law School and has published over 200 articles and eight books, including Inclusionary Zoning Moves Downtown, The Takings Issue, The Complete Guide to Zoning, and Eminent Domain Use and Abuse: Kelo in Context. He is the senior co-author of the leading casebook on land use law, Planning and Control of Land Development (Eighth Edition). Dwight has written and spoken widely on how to avoid RLUIPA claims and how to successfully defend against them in court. He is currently writing a book on the subject, RLUIPA DEFENSE, for the American Bar Association.

Dwight has been named to the Connecticut Super Lawyers® list in the area of Land Use Law since 2006, is one of the Top 50 Connecticut Super Lawyers in Connecticut, and is one of the Top 100 New England Super Lawyers (Super Lawyers is a registered trademark of Key Professional Media, Inc.). He received his B.A. (cum laude) from the University of Massachusetts, his Masters of Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina, where he was the graduation speaker in 2011, and his J.D. from Yale. He is a featured speaker at many land use seminars, and presents monthly audio land use seminars for the International Municipal Lawyers Association. Dwight has been cited in the national press from The New York Times to People magazine and has appeared on NBC’s The Today Show, MSNBC and public television.

Dwight also had a career in the Navy, serving for three tours in Vietnam aboard ship, then returning to be the Senior Advisor of the Naval ROTC Unit at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill where he taught Defense Administration and Military Management as an Assistant Professor in the undergraduate and graduate curriculum in Defense Administration and Military Management. He left active duty after seven years to attend law school, but continued on for 24 more years as a reserve Surface Warfare Officer with two major commands, including that of the reserve commanding officer of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center. He retired as a Captain in 2009 after 31 years of service.

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