The Supreme Court declined Monday to take up a case involving officials in Ocala, Florida, who called on residents to attend a prayer vigil that prompted two atheist plaintiffs to claim the city violated the First Amendment.
Justices made the decision without comment, which effectively leaves in place a federal appeals court ruling which found at least one plaintiff was within their rights to sue over the event. The lawsuit will proceed in a lower court.Republican-appointed Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas wrote brief opinions over the denial to hear the case. Gorsuch indicated a supportive stance for the city but that the case needed to proceed through lower courts.
The Ocala Police Department posted a letter to social media with co-signatures by the police chief and an activist tied to a local Baptist church. They encouraged the vigil and called for"fervent prayer" to help alleviate crime in the city. Former President Donald Trump's attorney Jay Sekulow is representing the city and argued that a"claim of personal offense or dismay, without more," does not present the right to sue for First Amendment violations.
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