Steve Mensing, Editor
♦The Rowan County Commissioners, according to Chairman Jim Sides, will meet tomorrow evening at 6 P.M. in closed session. Where: At the J. Newton Cohen Jr. Room on the 2nd floor of the Rowan County Building at 130 W. Innes Street. Commissioner Sides told the Rowan Free Press that ”the session will be held with our attorneys to discuss the central arguments of the case, to talk about updates and strategies and other matters important to our defense in the American Civil Liberties (ACLU) trial in Federal court. No voting is expected.” Chairman Sides added, “Our legal team has not yet identified an organization to receive funds for our legal support. It is quite probable that such an organization will be named later this week.”
Tuesday evening’s closed door session will be the third such meeting since the ACLU filed the lawsuit against the county over a month ago for opening meetings with a sectarian prayer. The two previous closed door sessions involved the hiring of lead defense attorney David C. Gibbs III and the initial 5-0 commissioner vote to fight the suit filed by the ACLU. Recently, the Rowan County 5′s legal team was granted an extension to file motions and prepare arguments. The five Rowan County Commissioners are Jim Sides, Craig Pierce, Chad Mitchell, Jon Barber, and Mike Caskey. An outpouring of popular support for the Rowan County 5 is being expressed with billboards, yard signs, bumper stickers, t-shirts, and magnetic vehicle signs.
The Rowan County’s 5 legal team is poised to fight for the commissioners’ First Amendment rights to free speech. David Gibbs III is the president and general counsel for the National Center for Life and Liberty and will be rendering his services without charge. Other legal organizations defending the Rowan County 5 include the Alliance for Defending Freedom (ADF) and the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ). They will support Gibbs in filing briefs for the Rowan County 5. Assisting the previous mentioned attorneys and legal organizations are attorney Barbara Weller and Brett Harvey, lead attorney for the Alliance for Defending Freedom, an organization known for fighting legal battles across America and world-wide. Bryce Neirer, an allied attorney for the Alliance for Defending Freedom, was involved in the Joyner versus Forsyth County case involving the ACLU. The famous conservative American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) legal organization, headed by noted attorney Jay Sekulow, will also be involved in filing “friend of the court” briefs.
The ACLU lawsuit against the Rowan County Commissioners was filed on behalf of 3 Rowan County residents: Nan Lund, Liesa Montag-Siegel and Robert Voelker. The basic claim put forth by the ACLU is that the Rowan County commissioners use of sectarian prayer in a government setting and this is unconstitutional.
