Fellowship appearance at roll call not a religious endorsement, sheriff's lawyer argues

June 12, 2006 -- Sheriff David Clarke would have violated the rights of the Fellowship of Christian Centurions had he denied its members the same access to Sheriff's Department personnel during roll call that other groups had, a lawyer for Clarke and the county says in a court filing.

"It is common practice to distribute information during roll calls, either in the form of written documents and/or oral presentations about community events and/or organizations concerned with connection to the law enforcement activities. Some of that information is related to religious organizations,"' attorney James Scott wrote.

The Milwaukee County Deputy Sheriff's Association is seeking a temporary restraining order prohibiting the Fellowship or other religious organizations from appearing at roll calls. The Association alleges that allowing the Fellowship to appear at roll call, as Clarke did, served as a county endorsement of Christian regious tenets "to the exclusion of all others."

The county, in its response to the suit, said that is not the case.

"What constitutes an endorsement of religion can be a vexing question. The answer, however, is not the absolute sterility suggested by plaintiffs in their brief and argued with selective quotations from Supreme Court opinions from the '50s," Scott wrote.

The modern interpretation of the constitutional requirement of church / state separation "requires neutrality on the part of government but does not bar all governmental preference for or recognition of religion," he said.

Other groups have made presentations at roll call, Scott argued. While the fellowship is faith-based, the program its representatives discussed at roll call, a peer support program, is open to all officers.

"Would a reasonable and objective observer view a five minute presentation about a faith-based peer support group as an endorsement of religion by Milwaukee County or the Office of the Sheriff?" Scott wrote. "Particularly when viewed in the context of other fairly common religious references from a variety of different faiths, we think the answer is obviously, no. The notion that the Sheriff by inviting two people who were in turn inviting others to attend an organizational meeting somehow equates to an endorsement,
is nonsense."

In addition, he said, "once the Sheriff's Department opens the door in the form of creating a limited public forum available to charitable and community groups to make presentations, it cannot exclude religious themed events solely on the basis of their religious connection. To do so violates the rights of the Fellowship itself."

Read the entire brief by clicking here. Read the accompanying exhibits by clicking here and here.

To see the original TRO request, supporting brief and supporting affidavits, click here, here, here, and here.