ACLU Asks for $173,000 in Attorney's Fees in Prayer Banner Suit

The Rhode Island Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which won a lawsuit against the Cranston School District for a religious display at , filed a request for repayment of attorney's fees in the amount of $173,000 in U.S. District Court today.

In a release, Steve Brown, executive director of the RIACLU, said the amount includes major discounts for hours of work by volunteer attorneys Lynette Labinger and Thomas Bender. He also said the amount is mindful of the school district's budget woes in recent years.

"In terms of its complexity, the ACLU noted that the school district initially raised ten affirmative defenses when it filed its answer to the lawsuit. The amount sought by the ACLU attorneys pales in comparison to the attorneys’ fees that lawyers working with the Becket Fund, the national group that assisted the school district in defending the case, obtained in a church-state lawsuit two years ago. In that case from Colorado, dealing with a church zoning dispute, attorneys working with the Becket Fund were awarded over $1.25 million in attorneys’ fees for their work handling the case in the district court."

The school district won't decide whether to appeal 40-page decision until a Feb. 16 School Committee meeting. Based on previous meetings, the turnout will likely be large, with supporters of Jessica Ahlquist, the ACLU's plaintifff one one side and pro-banner supporters who have been wearing signs that proclaim "APPEAL or be voted out" on the other.

School Committee Chairwoman Andrea Iannazzi said in an e-mail message that "the ACLU's fees are egregious and will certianly warrant significant review by the School Committee's and city's legal team."

The issue has made Cranston the subject of worldwide attention as this still very Catholic community divided over whether the banner should stay as an historic artifact from the schools formative years or be removed to comply with the Establishment Clause of the Constitution and a widely-accepted Democratic notion of separation of church and state.

The banner was erected in the auditorium at the high school in 1963. It begins with the phrase "Our Heavenly Father" and ends with "Amen," and hung in place for more than 50 years before it became the center of controversy. David Bradley, the author of the prayer and a graduate of the class of 1963, said he was tasked to write the prayer and the creed as a student council member in 1960 at the request of his adviser and the school administration.

The ACLU raised the issue in July of 2010 after a complaint from a parent. In a letter to the district, Steven Brown, executive director of the ACLU, wrote "there can be no question that the school auditorium’s prayer display violates a core principle of the First Amendment."

The district refused to remove the banner and instead, held a series of public hearings during which several School Committee members and a majority of residents who attended argued in favor of keeping the banner in place, citing its "historical significance" and highlighting its positive and moral message. The committee ultimately voted to defend the banner and the ACLU promptly filed suit last May.

"The Cranston School Committee was fully informed from the beginning that a decision to move forward with this case would likely result in the payment of attorney’s fees if they were not successful,” Brown said. “In fact, in an attempt to avoid the costs of litigation and spare the taxpayers, we waited eight months before filing suit in the hope that this matter could be informally resolved. Despite those efforts, the school committee voted to mount a vigorous defense of the prayer in court, leading to today’s filing.”

Click here to explore our extensive coverage of the prayer banner issue over the past year.

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