Don Wagner, candidate for the 70th Assembly District, has prevailed in Westphal v. Wagner, a suit filed against Wagner and the South Orange County Community College Board of Trustees, to prevent the offering of invocations at graduations, awards ceremonies, and other District functions.
The plaintiffs, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, sought an injunction but after months of discovery, including depostions from Wagner and other trustees, and reviewing thousands of pages of documents, the aetheists could not make their case that the District was violating the establishment clause of the Constitution. The court denied the motion and invocations can continue.
However, this case is not necessarily over. The aetheists may force this to trial and there is always a chance that Wagner et al could be defeated.
Bottom line, however, is that Wagner and the Board of Trustees stood against the effort to ban invocations and religious freedom and the First Amendment prevailed.
* Don Wagner is a client of Revolvis Consulting