Couple Sue to Pray at Home

The American Center for Law and Justice began legal proceedings Friday in a federal court in Hartford after New Milford residents Mary and Robert Murphy contended their five-year tradition of hosting Sunday prayer meetings was in jeopardy.

"This has nothing to do with a praying or religious issue," said Kathy Castagnetta, the town's zoning enforcement officer. "They were using the backyard as a parking lot, and neighbors were complaining."

Castagnetta said between 25 and 40 vehicles were parked each Sunday afternoon at the Murphy home. The zoning commission, she said, had simply ruled in compliance with established local regulations that prohibit "regularly scheduled meetings" at residences and the use of a "rear yard as a parking lot."

The Murphys could not be contacted for comment, but letters received that were written by several of the couple's neighbors as formal complaints to the zoning officials seemed to corroborate Castagnetta's claims about the numbers of vehicles parked each week for the prayer sessions.

Despite the level of opposition to the Murphys' Sunday activities, the ACLJ has argued the zoning board members committed an act of "religious discrimination" when they "overstepped their authority by determining that [the Murphys] cannot use their private residence for weekly prayer meetings."

The law firm said that the Murphys hosted fewer than 25 persons each week at their prayer sessions, and that the majority of those attending were family members.

In the complaint filed last week before a federal court, ACLJ attorney Vincent McCarthy listed 13 laws the town had violated with its actions against the Murphy family, including clauses outlined in the U.S. Constitution's First, Fifth and 14th amendments, the Connecticut Constitution and several federal and state statutes.

McCarthy seeks an injunction to the zoning board's ruling, in order that the couple might resume their weekly sessions.

"It is very troubling that a local government body would censor the religious expression of a family who only wants to use their own private residence for prayer," McCarthy stated in a news release.

"The town's reasoning and actions ... send a disturbing signal that the government can be used as a kind of 'prayer police' to censor ... our clients."

Even though the meetings have been held since 1995 at the couple's residence, complaints surfaced just this year, the ACLJ reported, after the town rescinded a permit for the Murphys to construct a driveway on their property, believing it would be used as an unauthorized parking lot for those attending the meetings.

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