Suspected terrorist Irv Rubin has changed the way they pray in Burbank.
A significant legal fight is brewing between the foothill community and Rubin, one of two militant Jewish Defense League leaders whom a federal grand jury indicted this month on charges of plotting to bomb a Culver City mosque and a congressman's office.
The legal dispute, unrelated to that case, has to do with prayer at City Council meetings. It arose during a meeting in November 1999, when a minister delivered a prayer invoking the name of Jesus Christ. Rubin filed a lawsuit alleging that the religious reference was unconstitutional.
A year ago, a Los Angeles trial judge ruling in that case ordered Burbank to stop sectarian prayer--that which reflects a specific religion's beliefs--before council meetings.
Since then, the council has begun each meeting with a nondenominational invocation. In addition, the agenda now warns that sectarian prayer has been deemed unconstitutional.
Burbank officials are complying with the court's judgment while they appeal the ruling. But they say they cannot legally censor the viewpoint of the clergy who volunteer to lead the invocation, including those who call on Jesus Christ.
"To me, it's a free-speech issue," Mayor Bob Kramer said. "When a minister or a rabbi comes to a meeting, is it our job to tell them how to pray?"
Both sides agree that the case raises important constitutional questions. Burbank leaders say the issue is free speech. Rubin, co-plaintiff Roberto Alejandro Gandara--who is Christian--and their attorney Roger Jon Diamond, however, say that invoking Christ's name in prayer at a council meeting shows a preference for one religion over another and violates the Constitution's prohibition against the establishment of religion.
A hearing date in the 2nd District Court of Appeal has not been set.
Unlike school prayer cases, the U.S. Supreme Court in 1983 cited tradition in upholding the constitutionality of an opening invocation at legislative sessions. The case, Marsh vs. Chambers, is the only one on legislative prayer to come before the Supreme Court.
The court distinguished between school and legislative prayer, saying that adult lawmakers are less susceptible to religious indoctrination or peer pressure.
But Rubin and Burbank officials disagree over whether the Supreme Court decision addressed the type of prayer allowed, or whether it had to be nondenominational.
