Editing Rowan County, North Carolina (section)

===County commission prayer===
In 2013 the [[American Civil Liberties Union]] filed suit on behalf of three Rowan county residents against the county commission's practice of starting their meeting with sectarian prayers by the commissioners, who instructed attendees to stand and join in. A federal district court issued an [[injunction]] forbidding the county commissioners from praying at their meetings.<ref>{{Bluebook journal |first=|last=Note| title=Fourth Circuit Holds that County Commissioners’ Practice of Offering Sectarian Prayers at Public Meetings Is Unconstitutional| volume=131 | journal=[[Harvard Law Review|Harv. L. Rev.]] | page=626| url=https://harvardlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/626-633_Online.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190906021240/https://harvardlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/626-633_Online.pdf |archive-date=September 6, 2019 |url-status=live| year=2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite court |litigants=Lund v. Rowan County|vol=103|reporter=F.Supp.3d |opinion=712 |court=M.D.N.C.|date=2015|url= https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=10684519485631111095}}</ref> After a divided panel of the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit]] found that the prayers did not violate the [[Establishment Clause]] of the [[United States Constitution]], the full court sitting ''[[en banc]]'' disagreed and affirmed the injunction.<ref>{{cite news |title=Rowan County meeting prayers being reconsidered by federal appeals court |url=https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article111765172.html |access-date=January 10, 2019 |newspaper=Charlotte Observer}}</ref><ref>{{cite court |litigants=Lund v. Rowan County|vol=863|reporter=F.3d |opinion=268 |court=4th Cir.|date=2017 (en banc|url= https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=17044303360687752971}}</ref> The [[Supreme Court of the United States]] declined to review, over the written dissent of two justices.<ref>{{cite court |litigants=Rowan County v. Lund|vol=138|reporter=S.Ct.|opinion=2564 |date=2018|url= https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=8961231407468221769 }}</ref><ref>{{Bluebook journal |first=|last=Note| title=Pressure to Pray? Thinking beyond the Coercion Test for Legislator-Led Prayer| volume=86 | journal=[[University of Chicago Law Review|U. Chicago L. Rev.]] | page=151| url=https://lawreview.uchicago.edu/sites/lawreview.uchicago.edu/files/03%20Taxy_CMT_Post-SA%20%28KT%29.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801220935/https://lawreview.uchicago.edu/sites/lawreview.uchicago.edu/files/03%20Taxy_CMT_Post-SA%20%28KT%29.pdf |archive-date=August 1, 2020 |url-status=live| year=2017}}</ref> In 2019, the county was forced to pay $285,000 to the ACLU for the plaintiffs' legal fees because it had lost the lawsuit.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Bergeron |first1=Josh |title=Rowan County commissioners to pay $285,000 after losing prayer lawsuit |url=https://www.salisburypost.com/2019/01/07/rowan-county-commissioners-to-pay-285000-after-losing-prayer-lawsuit/ |access-date=January 10, 2019 |publisher=Salisbury Post}}</ref>