SALISBURY, N.C. – A recent federal appeals court ruling could have implications for school districts struggling with the issue of prayer at school board meetings.

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that members of the Rowan County Board of Commissioners in North Carolina did not violate the U.S. Constitution with the board’s prayer policy, which allows members to give invocations prior to meetings, Greenville Online reports.

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The appellate court wrote in the majority opinion that “The Board’s legislative prayer practice falls within our recognized tradition and does not coerce participation by nonadherents. It is therefore constitutional.”

Alex Saitta – a board member in Pickens County, South Carolina – told the news site that the ruling supports his position that the Pickens County school board’s policy allowing only “non-sectarian” prayers by board members infringes on his rights. Pickens County, like Rowan, was targeted by the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation.

“Clearly the board policy disallowing me to pray in Jesus’ name when it is my turn is unconstitutional,” he said.

According to the Salisbury Post:

Previously, North Carolina’s U.S. Middle District Court ruled that Rowan County’s prayer practices at the beginning of each board of commissioners meetings were unconstitutional. At issue in the case is that commissioners themselves gave sectarian prayers at the start of each meeting. The district court specifically found that solemnizing, sectarian prayer during meetings violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The 4th Circuit Court reversed the lower court’s decision.

“In essence, the district court treated the Supreme Court’s jurisprudential silence on lawmaker-led prayer as conclusively excluding legislators from being permissible prayer-givers to their own legislative bodies,” wrote Judge Steven Agee, one of two who ruled in the majority.

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The lawsuit, brought by the ACLU on behalf of three residents, alleged those at the Rowan County meetings were coerced to participate with an unspoken threat of discrimination. The ACLU told the Salisbury Post it will seek an en banc review, meaning it will request that the entire U.S. 4th Circuit Court consider the case, rather than the three-judge panel.

While the Appeals Court majority cited the Supreme Court case of Town of Greece vs. Galloway, and the ACLU alleges the case is much different than the situation in Rowan County because Greece’s elected officials brought in religious leaders to give invocations while the Rowan case centers on the officials themselves praying, according to Greenville Online.

“Rowan County residents should be able to attend local government meetings without being coerced to participate in sectarian prayer or worry that the commissioners may discriminate against them if they do not,” North Carolina ACLU Legal Director Chris Brook told the Post.

“As Judge Wilkinson wrote in his dissent … the facts in this case are a ‘conceptual world apart’ from those the U.S. Supreme Court upheld in Greece, New York, and that is why well seek en banc review.”

“This case is more than a factual wrinkle on Town of Greece vs. Galloway … It is a conceptual world apart,” Appeals court Judge Harvie Wilkinson wrote in his dissent. “No one disputes that localities enjoy considerable latitude in opening their meetings with invocations and prayers. But the legislative prayer practice here pushes every envelope.”

The Rowan case was backed by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Freedom From Religion Foundation and seven other groups, Greenville Online reports.

South Carolina was among 12 other states and numerous members of Congress who backed Rowan County.

Rowan County commissioners are currently using a volunteer chaplain to offer opening prayers at meetings as the legal case proceeds and will continue to do so through the next appeal, chairman Gregg Edds said.

“We are very pleased with the decision and think the Court properly decided the matter,” Edds said. “Our attorneys are currently working through the decision and we will know more about it in the coming days.”

School board members like Saitta, meanwhile, are pushing to rewrite policy in light of the appeals court decision, though it’s unclear if the ruling is enough to convince colleagues to make a change.

Pickens County school attorney Bick Halligan said he hadn’t reviewed the recent ruling, but said the school board members will be reconsidering their prayer policy “sometime in the future and I will meet and talk with them when they do.”

“I know that the Pickens Board intends always to comply with state law, and as far as I know it always has and it will continue to do so,” he said.