The Yeti\’s Cyber Smithy

Hats off to Darla Wynne

Wiccan wins a good fight!

Great Falls, a small city in South Carolina with a population of about 2,200 people, didn’t seem to understand that using the name ‘Jesus Christ’ in prayers at the start of city council meetings constituted a violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. Darla Wynne asked them, to stop the unconstitutional practice, but the refused. So Darla Wynne, a practicing Wiccan, sued in 2001.

Darla Wynne won, but at the cost of $18,000.00 in legal costs which under most civil laws would be the responsibility of the city to pay. After all, they lost. They were found wrong. They flip the bill. Well, even after a court ruled that the city was in the wrong, they refused to accept the ruling. The city appealed the case and the battle went on all the way up to the Supreme Court of the United States of America, the highest court in the land. The legal bill also went up. All the way to $65,000.00 by June of 2005.

In June of 2005, the Supreme Court refused to hear the towns appeal which in effect ended the argument. The town was wrong. End of story. Well, end of the discussion of using the name of a specific deity in government sponsored prayer. But what of that $65,000.00 dollars?

September 2005, the court grants Darla Wynne the $65,000.00 in legal expenses, saying that the town will pay the expenses. That amount is roughly 7% of the annual budget of Great Falls, South Carolina. It is also a small amount compared to what the courts could have granted Darla Wynne if she had asked for what she was also entitled to; penalties and punitive damages.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,165696,00.html