Snyder v. Murray City Corp., 96-4087

• Decision Date: 10 September 1997
• Docket Number: No. 96-4087,96-4087
• Parties: 97 CJ C.A.R. 1839 Tom SNYDER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. MURRAY CITY CORPORATION, a municipal corporation; H. Craig Hall, City Attorney for Murray City Corporation, Defendants-Appellees. United States of America, Intervenor.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

Page 1349

124 F.3d 1349

97 CJ C.A.R. 1839

Tom SNYDER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. MURRAY CITY CORPORATION, a municipal corporation; H. Craig Hall, City Attorney for Murray City Corporation Defendants-Appellees United States of America, Intervenor.

No. 96-4087.

United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit.

Sept. 10, 1997.

Brian M. Barnard (Andrea Garland and the Utah Legal Clinic, with him on the briefs), Cooperating Attorneys for Utah Civil Rights & Liberties Foundation, Inc., Salt Lake City, UT, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Allan L. Larson (Richard A. Van Wagoner, with him on the brief), Snow, Christensen & Martineau, Salt Lake City, UT, for Defendants-Appellees.

Before KELLY, HOLLOWAY, and BRISCOE, Circuit Judges.

PAUL KELLY, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff Tom Snyder appeals from the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Defendants Murray City and H. Craig Hall, the City Attorney of Murray City. In his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action, Mr Snyder alleged that Murray City's refusal to permit him to speak during the reverence portion of a Murray City Council meeting violated his rights under the United States Constitution. He also alleged violations of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Utah Constitution. The talk Mr. Snyder desired to present--which he characterizes as a prayer and the City characterizes as a diatribe against City officials ¹--requests the "Mother in Heaven" to cause the cessation of prayers at public meetings. We exercise jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and affirm in part and reverse in part.

Background

Since 1982, Murray City has opened its city council meetings with a reverence period, during which an invocation or devotional is presented. The reverence portion of the meetings is designed to encourage lofty thoughts, promote civility, and cause the participants to set aside other matters in order to focus on the topics to be addressed at the meeting. The city council extends invitations to speak during the reverence period to individuals representing a broad cross-section of religious faiths, and invocations or devotionals have been presented at the Murray City Council meetings by Christians, Navajos, Quakers, and Zen Buddhists. One speaker simply requested a moment of silence. Mr. Snyder, who does not reside in Murray City, wrote to the City, advising of his interest in presenting a prayer at a council meeting. Mr. Snyder attached his two-page proposed "Opening Prayer" to the letter. ² Mr. Snyder's request was part of his personal campaign to stop prayers at public meetings, waged in response to a recent decision of the Supreme Court of Utah which upheld Salt Lake City's practice of opening public meetings with a prayer.

Although Mr. Snyder was reared as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, he is no longer a practicing member of that faith, or any other organized religion. He testified that he considers himself deeply religious, but is not yet sure what his beliefs are, and leans towards agnosticism. Mr. Snyder cites the Book of Mormon and the Gospel of St. Matthew as the religious bases for his prayer. He believes that prayer should be a private matter between an individual and his or her God, and that Jesus Christ opposed public prayers, including those before government meetings. Although Mr. Snyder testified at his deposition that he believes in God, he also testified that he questions God's existence.

On behalf of Murray City, Mr. Hall responded to Mr. Snyder's request and informed him that his proposed prayer was unacceptable because it did not follow the guidelines for prayers which the City had previously provided to Mr. Snyder. Although the council had no formal, written policy, Mr. Snyder had been informed by letter prior to the submission of his proposed prayer that "the purpose of the 'prayer' is to allow individuals [the] opportunity to express thoughts, leave blessings, etc. It is not a time to express political views, attack city policies or practices or mock city practices or policies." Mr. Snyder had also been advised that comments on City practices and policies could be made during city council meetings either by requesting a place on the meeting agenda or by speaking during the citizen comment portion of the meeting. The citizen comment portion of the meeting immediately follows the reverence portion.

Mr. Snyder filed this § 1983 action upon receiving in the mail Murray City's denial of his request to give a prayer. He alleges that the City's refusal of his request violated his rights under the United States and Utah Constitutions to free exercise of his religion and to due process. Mr. Snyder also alleges violations of the Establishment Clause of both Constitutions, and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000bb-2000bb-4. Both Defendants and Mr. Snyder moved for summary judgment, which the district court granted in favor of the Defendants and denied to Mr. Snyder, who brings this appeal.

Discussion

Our review of questions of constitutional law and dispositions on summary judgment is de novo. United States v. One Parcel Property, 106 F.3d 336, 338 (10th Cir.1997).

I. Claims Under the United States Constitution

Mr. Snyder brings this action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. To prevail in a § 1983 claim, a plaintiff must establish that the defendants, while acting under color of state law, deprived him of a right, privilege, or immunity secured by the United States Constitution. We therefore consider whether Murray City's denial of Mr. Snyder's request to deliver his proposed prayer during the reverence portion of a city council meeting violated his rights under the Free Exercise, Establishment, or Due Process Clauses of the Federal Constitution.

In his briefs, Mr. Snyder relies upon case law interpreting the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment. Since he did not allege a violation of his right to free speech, however, we need not consider the arguments raised under that body of law.

A. Free Exercise Claim

The first questions in any free exercise claim are whether the plaintiff's beliefs are religious in nature, and whether those religious beliefs are sincerely held. United States v. Seeger, 380 U.S. 163, 185, 85 S.Ct. 850, 863-64, 13 L.Ed.2d 733 (1965). Only beliefs which are religious in nature are protected by the Free Exercise Clause. Nevertheless, "religious beliefs need not be acceptable, logical, consistent, or comprehensible to others in order to merit First Amendment protection." Thomas v. Review Bd. of the Ind. Employment Sec. Div., 450 U.S. 707, 714, 101 S.Ct. 1425, 1430, 67 L.Ed.2d 624 (1981).

Although Mr. Snyder swore out affidavits attesting to his sincerity, the district court held that he was not sincere in the beliefs espoused in his proposed prayer. The district court reached this conclusion based upon the text of Mr. Snyder's prayer, which the court found to contain political instead of religious content, and on Mr. Snyder's deposition testimony that he was unsure of his religious beliefs. The inquiry into the sincerity of a free-exercise plaintiff's religious beliefs is almost exclusively a credibility assessment, see Seeger, 380 U.S. at 186, 85 S.Ct. at 864; Mosier v. Maynard, 937 F.2d 1521, 1526 (10th Cir.1991), and therefore the issue of sincerity can rarely be determined on summary judgment. This may well be, however, one of those very rare cases in which the plaintiff's beliefs are "so bizarre, so clearly nonreligious in motivation" that they are not entitled to First Amendment protection. Thomas, 450 U.S. at 715, 101 S.Ct. at 1431.

Regardless, we need not decide whether Mr. Snyder's beliefs are religious in nature nor whether they are sincerely held. Nor need we address Mr. Snyder's argument that summary judgment was inappropriate. Even assuming that Mr. Snyder is possessed of sincerely held religious beliefs, as articulated in his proposed prayer, we find that Mr. Snyder's claim is not cognizable under the Free Exercise Clause. In fact, Mr. Snyder's arguments evince a fundamental misconception about the rights bestowed by the Clause.

The Free Exercise Clause is one of the Bill of Rights's "thou shall not" prohibitions against certain government actions. The Clause "is written in terms of what the government cannot do to the individual, not in terms of what the individual can exact from the government." Sherbert v. Verner, 374 U.S. 398, 412, 83 S.Ct. 1790, 1798, 10 L.Ed.2d 965 (1963) (Douglas, J., concurring). To protect "the right to believe and profess whatever religious doctrine one desires," Employment Div. v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872, 877, 110 S.Ct. 1595, 1599, 108 L.Ed.2d 876 (1990), the Free Exercise Clause prohibits the government from impermissibly burdening an individual's free exercise of religion. However, "[t]he Free Exercise Clause simply cannot be understood to require the Government to conduct its own internal affairs in ways that comport with the religious beliefs of particular citizens." Bowen v. Roy, 476 U.S. 693, 699, 106 S.Ct. 2147, 2152, 90 L.Ed.2d 735 (1986).

The Free Exercise Clause does not guarantee any person the right to pray whenever and wherever he chooses. Nor does the Clause guarantee a person the right to speak during portions of public meetings set aside for devotional or invocational purposes. Suggestion to the contrary is inconsistent with both common sense and constitutional doctrine. Cf. Heffron v. International Soc'y for Krishna Consciousness, 452 U.S. 640, 647, 101 S.Ct. 2559, 2564, 69 L.Ed.2d 298 (1981) ("[T]he First Amendment does not guarantee the right to communicate one's views at all times and places or in any manner that may be desired."). We find no violation of the Free Exercise Clause.

B. Establishment Clause Claim

Mr. Snyder claims that Murray City's denial of his request to speak at the reverence portion of its city council meeting violated the Establishment Clause. This argument also misapprehends the protections...