A judge has issued a decree banning a Christian Texas judge from opening his courtroom proceedings in prayer, providing a legal victory to a prominent secular legal organization.

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The Freedom from Religion Foundation, a Wisconsin-based nonprofit established to promote a strict separation of church and state, won a challenge to prohibit Judge Wayne Mack, a justice of the peace from an area north of Houston in Montgomery County, from opening his courtroom with non-mandatory chaplain-led prayer.

U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt ruled on May 21 in favor of FRFF and anonymous local attorney “John Roe,” who has appeared in Mack’s courtroom at least 20 times and witnessed the chaplain-led prayers.

“The Court declares that the defendant’s practice of opening regular court proceedings with religious prayers is unconstitutional,” Hoyt wrote. “Should the defendant violate this Court’s declaratory decree, an injunction will issue.” . . .

Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF co-president, said in a statement that the “courtroom is not a church.” . . .

Judge Mack promised to institute “religious values within the office” and open his courtroom with prayer during his 2014 Republican primary campaign for his position as justice of the peace for Montgomery County Precinct 1. . . .

He has implemented various faith-based initiatives, such as the Justice Court Chaplaincy Program and prayer breakfasts.  . . .

He established the Justice Court Chaplaincy Program, where volunteer chaplains who are primarily Chrisitan would initiate court proceedings with an opening prayer or an invocation and share a short message from the Bible, the complaint states.

Mack introduced the chaplain and stated the name and location of the chaplain’s church. The bailiff would announce the prayers and allow anyone to leave the courtroom without their case being affected though the courtroom doors were locked to those on the outside.  . . .

Some citizens feared Mack would judge their cases differently based on whether they stayed for the optional prayer.  . . .

In the lawsuit, FRFF asserted Mack’s chaplain-led prayers are “unconstitutionally coercive” with “purpose and effect” of promoting religion.

FFRF wrote a letter to the defendant in September 2014 stating the opening ceremony that included prayer violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which prohibits the government from “respecting an establishment of religion.”

In an open letter addressed to “Pastors & People of Faith” in 2014, Mack wrote that his chaplaincy program has come under “national and local attack” by those that “believe that God & Faith has no place in public lives and service.”  . . .

FFRF originally challenged the courtroom prayers through a lawsuit filed in 2017. The suit was refiled in 2019.

FRFF was granted default judgment on March 25, declaring that Mack’s prayer violated the First Amendment.

Mack is represented by the First Liberty Institute, a legal nonprofit that advocates for religious freedom rights.  . . .

Liberty Institute maintains that Mack allows “multi-faith, volunteer chaplains to open his courtroom ceremonies.” The program has included chaplains from Christian, Sunni Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu traditions. Mack is not even in the courtroom when the invocations are given, the legal group argues.  . . . 

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(Excerpt from Christian Post. Article by Emily Wood. Photo Credit: Canva.)