I had done an open records request this week asking for a copy of the list Danny Chambers uses that has all the religious entities he has approached to do the invocation. Got back a reply a bit ago that he has no written list, so apparently he is choosing who he would ask, approaching them on his own, keeping a list in his head (there is no prayer policy in Somervell County) , and discriminating against those who would like to have the chance to do the invocation.(Unlike the SCOTUS Town of Galloway vs Greece case which accepted ANYONE who asked, can't be on Danny's list unless he asks and he's in charge of keeping people off) I suppose that rather than discriminate openly against me, he is going to abandon the idea that is perfectly acceptable for invocations at meetings, to be inclusive. Apparently, he now understands that ANY citizen can do an invocation, it doesn't have to fit his idea of what faith or non-faith someone must be, or his own personal idea of what a prayer is and who it should be directed to.Since the letter from Freedom from Religion's attorney was sent to County Attorney Andy Lucas, does that mean that Lucas is giving Chambers this bad advice or is Chambers considering this on his own?
However, to my amazement, I heard, secondhand, that he is planning to go BACK to having elected officials do the prayer FROM THE DAIS, a practice he stopped after I pointed out a few months ago that was unconstitutional. Again, from Town of Greece vs Galloway
and......
IF that is 1, he is opening up Somervell County to be sued. Why would he do that? Just to discriminate against me?
When Danny Chambers took his oath of office to be county judge, he swore to uphold the US Constitution. He CANNOT allow elected officials to do a prayer, that is establishment of religion. Why did he see this was correct a couple of months ago and stop the practice and now all of a sudden wants to go back to it? The only reason is his being non-inclusive and discriminatory and inserting his own personal ideas into secular government, since the Supreme Court has ruled on this matter. I told him I was going to fight him on this, He told me he welcomes a fight. Good. I'm a US citizen just as much as anyone else that lives in this town, and I'm going to continue to do so even while he attempts to backtrack to an unconstitutional stance.
Somervell County Commissioner Court is not a church. Elected officials have the right to have ceremonial legislative invocations/prayer as long as they are not leading it themselves and as long as they include ALL comers.
For some additional review, here is Texas City Attorneys discussing invocations at government meetings in light of Town of Greece v Galloway
![](http://salon.glenrose.net/img/greeceparyer3.PNG)
and
![](http://salon.glenrose.net/img/greeceprayer4.PNG)