> Atheist Wins Fight to Pray at City Meeting
>
> April 13, 2003
> By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
>
> SALT LAKE CITY, April 12 - The Utah Supreme Court has
> granted an atheist the right to pray in City Council
> meetings.
>
> The court ruled on Friday that if officials in Murray, a
> Salt Lake City suburb, wanted to pray during
> government-sponsored events, the opportunity must be
> accessible to all who ask.
>
> The Supreme Court's 4-1 ruling reversed the dismissal of a
> lawsuit that the man, Tom Snyder, 71, filed in state court
> in 1999.
>
> Mr. Snyder has been pursuing his cause since 1994, when
> filed an initial lawsuit in federal court against Murray
> for 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."
>
> Friday's ruling was based on a 1993 decision that upheld
> Salt Lake City's right to hear prayers during official
> events as long as the opportunity to pray was
> nondiscriminatory.
> Salt Lake City chose to end public prayer rather than deal
> with the potential problems.
>
>
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/13/national/13PRAY.html?ex=1051292505&ei=1&en