CHARLESTON — A lawsuit has been filed against the city of Parkersburg for opening city council meetings with the Lord's Prayer.
Freedom From Religion Foundation is suing Parkersburg on behalf of Daryl Cobranchi and Eric Engle. The foundation alleges the city violated the First Amendment by endorsing a specific religion during the opening of its city council meetings.
Cobranchi frequently attended Parkersburg City Council meetings beginning in 2011 until October 2017, according to a complaint filed July 31 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. Cobranchi said he has spoken at the meetings and had advocated for the adoption of a non-discrimination ordinance.
During the council meetings, the council president directs those in attendance to stand for the Lord's Prayer and then leads the prayer himself, according to the suit.
Cobranchi said he does not stand and does not recite the Lord's Prayer, but that he feels pressured to do so because everyone else is standing and he believes he is being singled out because he is an atheist.
Because of being singled out, Cobranchi stopped regularly attending the meetings in October 2017. He said he felt treated like a second-class citizen because of his religious choice. Cobranchi said he wants to continue participating in his local government, but that the reciting of the Lord's Prayer made him feel unwelcome.
Engle said he attended the meetings regularly until August 2017. Engle wants to continue to be active in local government but felt singled out because of the reciting of the Lord's Prayer.
Both Cobranchi and Engle are members of FFRF.
Chris Line, a legal fellow with FFRF, said FFRF is suing over the Lord's Prayer at the meetings because it violates the plaintiffs' First Amendment rights.
"We filed this lawsuit on behalf of [Cobranchi and Engle] so that Parkersburg residents are able to go to their city council meetings without [being] subjected to this prayer led by the council members," Line said in an interview with The West Virginia Record. "We are hopeful that with this lawsuit, everyone in Parkersburg will be able to attend and participate in their city council meetings without being subjected to a religious ritual and feeling excluded because of that."
FFRF seeks declaratory judgment that reciting of the Lord's Prayer violates the U.S. Constitution, an injunction enjoining the defendants from reciting the Lord's Prayer; and judgment in the amount of $1 to each plaintiff.
FFRF is represented by attorneys Marcus B. Schneider of Steele Schneider; Kristina Thomas Whiteaker of The Grubb Law Group, and by Chris Line and Patrick C. Elliott from FFRF.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case number: 2:18-cv-01198