Appellate judges rule for Wiccan

Legal setback for Great Falls council

By Andrew Dys The Herald

GREAT FALLS -- Great Falls has lost the latest round in its legal battle to invoke the name of Jesus Christ in pre-Town Council meeting prayers. A unanimous three-judge decision handed down this week by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals means the full appeals court will not hear the town's appeal of an earlier decision against it, said Brian Gibbons, the town's lawyer.

Darla Wynne, a Wiccan high priestess, sued the town in 2001 for using the name Jesus Christ in prayers before meetings. A federal court ruling in August 2003 banned specific deity references in the prayers, prompting Great Falls to fight back. A three-judge appeal panel ruled against Great Falls in July.

Wynne is happy but concedes that her fight may not be over.

"I don't know if it changes anything, but I do know that none of the judges dissented," she said. "So maybe it is less likely the (U.S.) Supreme Court would hear it."

No decision has yet been made whether Great Falls will try to take its case to the U.S. Supreme Court within the 90-day deadline, Gibbons said. But the decision could hinge on whether the Town Council's disagreement on principle is worth the cost of paying lawyers to fight in the highest U.S. court.

Council member J.C. Broom -- often the prayer reader before meetings -- hadn't been told of the decision Thursday but said that two appeals court strikes might mean the end of the challenge.

"I just don't know what we will decide to do," Broom said. "It seems to me like it's about gone far enough. That's two strikes against us in this situation."

Some on the council and Gibbons himself may disagree with the ruling on moral, theological and philosophical grounds but the council will abide by the ruling, Gibbons said.

The case has become a flash point in the national argument over prayer before meetings and the separation of church and state. Lawyers have worked for free for Great Falls so far, Gibbons said, and S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster has vowed to help the town with its case. The American Jewish Congress and Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed written briefs on behalf of Wynne.

The written ruling stated prayers before councils are part of the nation's history and provide an opportunity for reflection and strength for believers.

"This opportunity does not, however, provide the Town Council, or any other legislative body, license to advance its own religious views in preference to all others, as the Town Council did here," the ruling states. "The First Amendment bars such official preference for one religion, and corresponding discrimination against all others."

At the next council meeting Nov. 15, Gibbons and another lawyer who has helped the town will brief the council about the appeals court setback. It is common in appeals cases that the losing side has to pay legal fees, Gibbons said.

"When it starts costing the town money that's something else," Broom said.

Wynne's lawyer, Herbert Buhl IV, already asked for Wynne to have her legal fees reimbursed by the town in the lower federal court but the payment issue remains in limbo until the appeals case is finished, Gibbons said.

Wynne's decision to sue the town has led to several incidents of violence directed at her. She was injured last weekend when someone drove up in a car and threw a small rock at her face as she stood in her front yard looking for her dog, according to a Great Falls Police Department report. Wynne told police she lost part of a tooth and suffered a cut near her eye. The Oct. 30 incident remains under investigation.

In August, Wynne returned home from dinner with a friend and discovered one of her parrots had been beheaded and his heart cut out, she said. A note attached to the back of Little One, Wynne's 8-year-old African gray parrot, said, "You're next!"

Great Falls police have responded to at least 10 calls of reported vandalism at her residence in the past year or so, Chief Mike Revels said.

Many of the town's 2,200 residents regard Wynne as a witch and disapprove of her pagan faith, she has said. The vandalism has ranged from destruction of her cars to several of her animals being poisoned, Wynne said.

Herald staff writer Matt Garfield contributed to this report.

Andrew Dys •329-4065

adys@heraldonline.com