Daily Star Staff Writer

NEW ORLEANS -- A federal judge ruled Wednesday to permanently forbid the Tangipahoa Parish School Board from beginning its meetings with prayers that violate the First Amendment's "Establishment Clause."

U.S. District Court Judge Ginger Berrigan ruled in favor of John Doe in the Loranger parent's federal lawsuit against TPSB.

The decision against the School Board marks the third time in more than nine years that the board has lost a lawsuit when the American Civil Liberties Union acted on the plaintiffs' behalf.

"It showed what they were doing had a religious purpose. Essentially, unfortunately for them, they reached a point where they decided we're going to do it our way and not be concerned with how a federal court decides," attorney Ron Wilson, who represented Doe, said Friday. "It's sort of a lack of willingness to do what was equally right."

The Tangipahoa Parish School Board's August 2004 unanimous refusal to adopt a proposed prayer policy was basically what decided the case against it, Wilson.

AIG Insurance, who holds the School Board's errors and omissions insurance, hired New Orleans-based law firm Adams and Reese in January 2004 when the board turned the case over to the company. Lawyers from the firm had recommended a policy stating the board could open meetings with a brief "nonsectarian, nonproselytizing" invocation.

Board attorney Chris Moody told The Daily Star in August 2004 that nonproselytizing meant the invocation does not try to convert someone or bring them into a particular religious fold. Nonsectarian meant it cannot be directed to any one belief.

Moody said Friday the School Board will have to honor Berrigan's injunction, and he assumed the board will want to appeal. The board has 30 days from the ruling to file an appeal to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal.

"I can't count those votes. This issue is very important to them. I expect they would appeal," he said.

The case was originally filed in October 2003 by the ACLU on Doe's behalf. It accused the board of endorsing prayers or religion at Loranger High School football games, during the school day and at School Board meetings.

Berrigan ruled the School Board failed the U.S. Supreme Court's Establishment Clause tests created after the 1971 Lemon vs. Kurtzman case.

A government practice is unconstitutional under Lemon if it lacks a secular purpose, its primary effect either advances or inhibits religion or it excessively entangles government with religion.

Citing the Sept. 3, 2003, board meeting, Berrigan stated School Board invocations lacked a secular purpose, despite the board asserting it had a secular purpose on that date.

"Furthermore, the School Board specifically refused to adopt a written policy that would provide nonsectarian and nonproselytizing prayers. Accordingly, this court holds that the School Board's practice of opening each meeting with a prayer lacks a secular purpose," the judge wrote in her ruling.