June 28, 2001, 11:49PM
Christian program at county jail ruled unconstitutional
By JANET ELLIOTT
Copyright 2001 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau
AUSTIN -- An intensive Christian education program at the Tarrant County jail unconstitutionally promoted the religious views of the former sheriff, the Texas Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
"Tarrant County's operation of the Chaplain's Education Unit, so as to endorse one religion over other religions or nonreligion, conveyed the impermissible message that the county preferred the personal religious views of the sheriff and chaplain over other views. This official endorsement of religion is, as a matter of law, unconstitutional," wrote Justice Deborah Hankinson for a unanimous court.
Former Sheriff David Williams and former Chaplain Hugh Atwell initiated the program, known as the "God Pod," in 1992. Inmates who volunteered for the program spent 120 days studying what Williams and Atwell called "orthodox Christianity."
Participants had to accept the Bible as infallible truth, believe in Jesus Christ as deity and be "born again" to attain salvation. Williams and Atwell testified that they reviewed all program materials and would not allow instructors to discuss any other religious viewpoint.
Williams and Tarrant County were sued by a taxpayer and two inmates, one who is Jewish and another a Jehovah's Witness. Tarrant County state District Judge Bonnie Sudderth ruled that the program was constitutional.
The Supreme Court sent the case back to the trial court and said that the taxpayer, Dr. Ronald Flowers, could seek an injunction. The court also said former inmate Ruth Maree Lara, who alleged federal civil rights violations, could be entitled to damages.
Williams, a reclusive man who clashed frequently with county commissioners, was defeated for re-election last year by Dee Anderson. He once tried to claim "sovereignty" from commissioners' authority under the 1836 law of the Republic of Texas.
County commissioners cut Atwell's salary from the budget, but Williams signed a $327,873 contract with a nonprofit organization headed by Atwell.
Chief Deputy Sheriff Jim Willett said Anderson has modified the program. He called the court's ruling "good news" because the program can now be dismantled.
"There was a certain constituency that wanted us to leave it in place even against our better judgment," said Willett.
Richard Rohan, with the Dallas law firm of Carrington, Coleman, Solman & Blumenthal, represented Lara at the behest of the American Jewish Congress. He said Lara feels vindicated by the ruling.
"We hope that it serves as a caution light for other programs in the future. There are right ways some of these programs can be implemented, but it's not running roughshod over the Constitution," said Rohan.
Marvin Collins, chief of the civil section for the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office, said that a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court is unlikely.
"When a conservative state supreme court holds that you have violated the First Amendment, the odds of getting that overturned in the U.S. Supreme Court are probably not that great," said Collins.
As governor, George W. Bush filed a friend-of-the-court brief that supported the concept of prison ministries, although it did not specifically argue for the Tarrant County program.
Kelly Shackelford, chief counsel for the Liberty Legal Institute, a group dedicated to religious rights, also filed a brief. Shackelford said he wanted to make sure the Supreme Court understood that the government has to play a role in bringing religion to jail inmates.
He said he is pleased the court acknowledged that prison programs that involve religious instruction can comport with the Constitution.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/metropolitan/956588
Yakki Da
Kent
"The only difference between God and Adolf Hitler is that God is more proficient at genocide."
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