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HomeMy WebLinkAboutINVOCATIONS - 2-2014City of Santa Ana Administrative Policies and Procedurel Policy and Procedures Regarding Invocations at 02/11/2014 T41MITIM, WITIOM M_ Legislative bodies in America have long maintained a tradition of solemnizing proceedings by allowing for an opening prayer (or an invocation) before each meeting, for the benefit and blessing of the legislative bodies. Such prayer before deliberative public bodies has been consistently upheld as constitutional by American courts, including the United States Supreme Court, Since the incorporation of the City, the City Council has followed a, practice of selecting a member of local clergy to provide invocations at City Council meetings. The City now desires to adopt this formal, written policy to clarify and codify its invocation practices. IM01;M111 W111 W", In order to comply with decisions of the United States Supreme Court as well as lower courts regarding the use of invocations at the meetings of legislative bodies, it is wise to establish a formal policy regarding invocations at City Council meetings setting forth a procedure with specific guidelines for selecting the person or persons who will give the invocation. The City has long maintained a tradition of solemnizing proceedings by allowing for an opening prayer before each meeting, for the benefit and blessing of the legislative bodies; and since the incorporation of the City, the City has followed a practice of selecting a member of Police Department's Chaplain Program to provide invocations at City Council meetings; and the City now desires to adopt this formal, written policy to clarify its invocation practices; and such prayer before deliberative public bodies has been consistently upheld as constitutional by American courts, including the United States Supreme Court cases: Marsh v. Chambers, 463 U.S. 783 (1983), the United States Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the Nebraska Legislature's practice of opening each day of its sessions with a prayer by a chaplain paid with taxpayer dollars, and specifically concluded, "The opening of sessions of legislative and other deliberative public bodlies with prayer is deeply embedded in the history and tradition of this country. From colonial times through the founding of the Republic and ever since, the practice of -1- legislative prayer has coexisted with the principles of disestablishment and religious freedom." Id., at 786. The Supreme Court further held, "To invoke divine guidance on a public body ... is not, in these circumstances, an "establishment of religion or a step toward establishment, it is simply a tolerable acknowledgment of beliefs widely held among the people of this country." ld., at 792. The Supreme Court affirmed in Lynch v. Donnelly, 465 U.S. 668 (1984), "Our history is replete with official references to the value and invocation of Divine guidance in deliberations and pronouncements of the Founding Fathers and contemporary leaders." Id., at 675. The Supreme Court further stated, "Those government acknowledgments of religion serve, in the only ways reasonably possible in our culture, the legitimate secular purposes of solemnizing public occasions, expressing confidence in the future, and encouraging the recognition of what is worthy of appreciation in society. For that reason, and because of their history and ubiquity, those practices are not understood as conveying government approval of particular religious beliefs." Id., at 693 (O'Connor, J., concurring). The Supreme Court also famously observed in Zorach v. Clauson, 343 U.S. 306 (1952), "We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being," Id., at 313-14. The Supreme Court acknowledged in Holy Trinity Church v. United States, 143 U.S. 457 (1892), that the American people have long followed a "custom of opening sessions of all deliberative bodies and most conventions with prayer ...... Id., at 471. The Supreme Court has determined, "The content of [such] prayer is not of concern, to judges where ... there is no indication that the prayer opportunity has been exploited to proselytize or advance any one, or to disparage any other, faith or belief." Marsh, 463 U.S. at 794-795. The Supreme Court also proclaimed that it should not be the job of the courts or deliberative public bodies "to embark on a sensitive evaluation or to parse the content of a particular prayer" offered before a deliberative public body. Id. The Supreme Court has counseled against the efforts of government officials to affirmatively screen, censor, prescribe and/or proscribe the specific content of public prayers offered by private speakers, as such government efforts would violate the First Amendment rights of those speakers. See, e.g., Lee v. Weisman, 505 U.S. 577, 588- 589 (1992). The City intends, and has intended in past practice, to adopt a policy that upholds an individual's "free exercise" rights under the First Amendment. M The Supreme Court has repeatedly clarified that "there is a crucial difference between government speech endorsing religion, which the Establishment Clause forbids, and private speech endorsing religion, which the Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses protect." Bd. of Educ. of Westside Community Schools v. Mergens, 496 U.S. 226, 250 (1990), �, 70 _.- The City intends, and has intended in past practice, to adopt a policy that does not proselytize or advance any faith, or show any purposeful preference of one religious view to the exclusion of others. This policy set forth below has been approved by two federal courts in the cases of Pellphrey v. Cobb Count (11th Cir. 2008) 547 F3d 1263 and Rubin v. Cily-pf Lancaster (2011) 80 F,Supp.2d 1107. The City recognizes its constitutional duty to interpret, construe, and amend its policies to comply with constitutional requirements as they are announced. 1, in order to solemnize proceedings of the City Council, it is the policy of the City to allow for an invocation or prayer to be offered at its meetings for the benefit of the City Council and the community. 2. The prayer shall not be listed or recognized as an agenda item for the meeting so that it may be clear the prayer is not considered a part of the public business. 3. No member of the City Council or City employee or any other person in attendance at the meeting shall be required to participate in any prayer that is offered, 4. The prayer shall be voluntarily delivered by an eligible member of the clergy or a religious leader in the City of Santa Ana, To ensure that such person (the "invocational speaker") is selected from among a wide pool of the City's clergy/religious leaders, on a rotating basis, the invocational speaker shall be selected according to the following procedure: a. The Police Department shall compile and maintain a database (the "Congregations List") of the religious congregations with an established presence in the City of Santa Ana. b. The Congregations List shall be compiled by referencing the listing for "churches," "congregations," or other religious assemblies in the annual Yellow Pages telephone directory or directories published for the City of Santa Ana, research from the Internet, and consultation with local chambers of commerce. All churches, congregations or other religious, assemblies with an established presence in the City of Santa Ana are -3- eligible to be included in the Congregations List, and any such church, congregation or religious assembly can confirm its inclusion by specific written request to the Clerk. C. The Congregations List shall also include the name and contact information of any chaplain who may serve one or more of the fire departments or law enforcement agencies of the City of Santa Ana or any nearby military facilities. 4 i . The Congregations List shall be updated, by reasonable; efforts of t Police Department on a regular basis. I e. Within thirty (30) days of the effective date of this policy, and on or about December 1 of each calendar year thereafter, the Police Department shall mail an invitation addressed to the "religious leader" of each church, congregation or religious assembly listed on the Congregations List, as well as to the individual chaplains included on the Congregations List. The invitation shall be dated at the top of the page and read as follows: Dear religious leader, The City of Santa Ana makes it a policy to invite members of the clergy in the City to voluntarily offer a prayer before the beginning of its meetings, for the benefit and blessing of the City Council. As the leader of one of the religious congregations with an established presence in the local community of the City of Santa Ana, or in your capacity as a chaplain, you are eligible to offer this important service at an upcoming meeting of the City Council. If you are willing to assist the City Council in this regard, please send a written reply at your earliest convenience to the Police Department at the address included on this letterhead. Clergy are scheduled on a first-come, first-serve, or other random basis. The dates of the City Council's scheduled meetings for the upcoming year are listed on the following, attached page. If you have a preference among the dates, please state that request in your written reply. This opportunity is voluntary, and you are free to offer the invocation according to the dictates of your own conscience. To maintain a spirit of respect and ecumenism, the City Council requests only that the prayer opportunity not be exploited as an effort to convert others to the particular faith of the invocational speaker, nor to disparage any faith or belief different from that of the invocational speaker. On behalf of the City Council, I thank you in advance for considering this invitation, M Sincerely, XXXX g. Consistent with paragraph 7 hereof and, as the invitation letter indicates, the respondents to the invitation shall be scheduled on a first -come, first - served, or other random basis to deliver the prayers. h. If the selected invocational speaker does not appear at the scheduled meeting, the Mayor may ask for a volunteer from among the Council or the audience to deliver the invocation. 5. No invocational speaker shall receive compensation for his or her service. 6. The Police Department shall make every reasonable effort to ensure that a variety of eligible invocational speakers are scheduled for the City Council meetings. In any event, no invocational speaker shall be scheduled to offer a prayer at consecutive meetings of the City Council or at more than three (3) City Council meetings in any calendar year. 7. Neither the City Council nor the Police Department shall engage in any prior inquiry, review of, or involvement in, the content of any prayer to be offered by an invocational speaker. 8. This policy shall apply to all Commissions of the City of Santa Ana. 9. Shortly before the opening gavel that officially begins the meeting, the Mayor or presiding officer of a commission shall introduce the invocational speaker and the person selected to recite the Pledge of Allegiance following the invocation and invite only those persons who wish to do so to stand for those observances with the City Council. 10. This policy is not intended, and shall not be implemented or construed in any way, to affiliate the City Council with, nor express the City Council's preference for, any faith or religious denomination. Rather, this policy is intended to acknowledge and express the City Council's respect for the diversity of religious denominations and faiths represented and practiced among the citizens of Santa Ana. APPROVED AS TO FORM: .4el ID 6" 4 an?� Sonia R. Carvalho, City Attorney -5-