Indy TV #29 Interview With Richard Katskee, Attorney for Planitiffs in Lawsuit Against Town of Greece Over Sectarian Prayer

Richard Katskee, Assistant Legal Director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State and attorney for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the Town of Greece, NY and Supervisor Auberger over the issue of their opening Greece town board meetings with sectarian prayer.

In January of 2007, several people attended a town board meeting in regard to the town's non transparent attempts to control the public cable access channel. Several people who attended that meeting noticed that a sectarian prayer was given at the opening of the meeting. Despite, letters to the editor and a letter to Supervisor Auberger by the ACLU, the giving of sectarian prayers to open town board meetings continued. After feeling their issue of exclusion and disrespect for diversity were being ignored, two women attempted to speak with Supervisor Auberger directly, but were denied access and had to speak to Mr.McCann, Deputy Supervisor and Ms. Firkins, Director of constituent Services. At that meeting the two women, Susan Galloway and Linda Stephens expressed their feelings and were told that they could "leave or not listen" during the prayers if they were bothered. After their concerns were totally ignored again by the town, Susan and Linda contacted the Americans United for Separation of Church and State to see if they could help them with this issue. After AU wrote a letter and again the town refused to address the issue, Americans United filed a lawsuit against the town of Greece, NY and Supervisor Auberger on behalf of the plaintiffs. During the discovery phase of the lawsuit, it was discovered through videos obtained from Edu Cable, the soon to be ex-cable access provider who video tapes all town hall meetings, that the 104 prayer givers chosen to give the opening prayer prior to the lawsuit in 2007, were all Christian clergy. Of the 104 prayer given, most of them were sectarian prayers. Since the lawsuit, there has been some diversity in religious affiliations of prayer givers, 1 Jewish lay person, 1 Wiccan and 1 Baha'i have been amongst the Christian prayer givers, but most prayers have remained sectarian. In July, the case was heard in the Western District Federal Court and a ruling will be announced in the next week or two. There are two parts to the lawsuit. The first is in regard to the process of selecting prayer givers. The AU is asking that the the process be changed so that the diversity of beliefs in the Greece community are reflected in the selection of prayer givers. At the hearing, the Town's attorney argued that this part of the lawsuit was wrongly filed and that the town and Supervisor Auberger should not have been sued, but rather the clerks that were responsible for carrying out the town and Superivsor Auberger's selection process. This part of the lawsuit could go to trial if the Judge so decides. The second part of the lawsuit is over sectarian prayers opening town board meetings. In the interview, Richard Katskee discusses the issues surrounding the Greece case, its importance and what the effects of the decision will be. Mr. Katskee also speaks about a case he argued against the teaching of creationism renamed "intelligent design" in the public schools in Dover, PA. Most importantly, Richard Katskee talks about why it is important to keep church and state separate and how you can help to ensure this.