The Core Report – 08/11/10 WOODRUFF, S.C. — The city of Woodruff adopted an invocations policy Tuesday recommended by Alliance Defense Fund attorneys, which ensures local officials can continue their constitutionally protected practice of prayer before public meetings despite recent threats from the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Last month, ADF, in cooperation with area lawyers who are part of the nearly 1,800 attorneys in the ADF alliance, sent letters to three local governments in South Carolina, including Woodruff, offering to legally defend them for free if they are attacked in court over valid invocations policies.
Allied attorneys Jay Thompson of Nelson, Mullins, Riley & Scarborough, LLP; Matthew Gerrald of Barnes, Alford, Stork & Johnson, LLP; and Timothy Savidge of the Bufkin Law Firm, LLC, all of Columbia, S.C., sent the three letters last month to South Carolina officials on behalf of ADF.
“America’s founders opened public meetings with prayer, and public officials today should be able to do the same,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Brett Harvey. “We were happy to assist the city of Woodruff with a prayer policy that can be followed with confidence. We will defend it in court if necessary because the First Amendment protects public officials who choose to invoke divine guidance and blessings upon their work in the constitutionally sound manner described by this policy.” Read Full Story & Press Release from ADF
