Attorney: ‘Rules governing legislative prayer do not apply to citizens’ public comments’
A Southern California mom was silenced during a prayer in Jesus’ name at a recent city council meeting during a debate on a measure seeking to designate the city as a sanctuary for illegal immigrants and one that allows the trans-ing of children.
The incident occurred during a Ventura City Council meeting on March 18 when Tarin Swain, a mother of six and marketing manager for Moms For America, took the podium to voice her concerns about a proposed Community Autonomy, Rights, and Equality (CARE) Policy, which would identify Ventura as a “sanctuary city” for LGBT-identified communities, illegal immigrants, abortion and other “reproductive rights.”
Swain told CP her initial reason for speaking out was because, she says, her daughter was “socially transitioned at her school” without Swain’s knowledge or consent.
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“The school changed her name and gender in classes and told her it would be kept from me,” said Swain. “Additionally, teachers recommended her inappropriate male homosexual ‘coming-of-age’ books without my consent.”
According to Swain, the school’s “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) curriculum is “integrated into every aspect of campus life, including student surveys introducing sexual identity concepts in sixth grade and sex education materials depicting transgender men as pregnant.”
Swain began her comments to the city council by saying, “I am a mother of six, and the Ventura County Public Schools socially transitioned my daughter without my consent,” eliciting shouts of “lies, lies, lies” from the crowd. “I’ve come here today to offer nothing but prayer, and I want to lift up my Father in Heaven.”
She continued her prayer: “Father God, I just come to you in Jesus’ name. I pray, Father, that you would tear down the strongholds in this place. I pray, Father, that you would raise up the men in this room.”
Amid loud interruptions and booing from the crowd, Swain attempted to finish her prayer when Ventura Mayor Jeannette Sanchez-Palacios intervened, gaveling for order. “We don’t do prayer,” Sanchez-Palacios said. “Please finish your comments.”
Despite the disruptions, Swain completed her prayer, stating, “I do pray all this in the name of the Jesus, the Son, the Father, and the Holy Spirit. … Jesus is the King of kings and He is the Lord of lords.”
While praying at a school board meeting wasn’t her initial plan, Swain says that all changed when she realized how little time she had at the podium.
“I hadn’t planned to pray, but when I learned that I only had one minute to speak, I knew that my prepared comments were too long,” she said. “In that moment, I asked God what He wanted me to do with my 60 seconds. I felt the Holy Spirit prompt me to use my time for prayer, and so that’s what I did.”
But when the mayor told her that “we don’t do prayer,” Swain says she was caught off-guard.
“At first, I couldn’t even hear the mayor telling me to stop because the crowd behind me was so loud,” she said. “I had a man from the community come up to me afterward and express that in his years of attending hundreds of Ventura City Council meetings, he’s never seen someone stopped from praying. To me, it was a proof point for the power of prayer.”
It’s unclear what policy Sanchez-Palacios was referring to in her response to Swain. CP reached out Monday to the mayor for comment. This article will be updated if any response is received.
Erin Smith, associate counsel at First Liberty Institute, said any objection by the mayor to Swain’s prayer was “misplaced.”
“Any concern that the Establishment Clause is violated by prayer during public comment is misplaced. Private citizens speak on their own behalf, not on behalf of the government,” said Smith. “So any rules governing legislative prayer do not apply to citizens’ public comments.”
Clips of Swain’s comments subsequently went viral on social media. Following the community’s response, the city council temporarily pulled the measure from consideration but was expected to revisit the topic in April.
According to a city memo, the CARE policy is intended to “protect access to abortion and other reproductive healthcare services for adults and minors” in accordance with state law; “ensure immigrant residents and those perceived to be immigrants can access city services & programs without fear of deportation or legal repercussions;” and to “shield gender-diverse individuals and persons perceived to be gender diverse from external enforcement actions targeting their healthcare access or right to be free from discrimination” in the city of Ventura.
As for Swain, she believes it will take action from bold citizens in Christ to push back against government censorship.
“I know that when I got up to speak, I was stopped from praying,” she said. “As a Christian, I believe that we cannot stop the insanity of these policies without God and without people standing up to what is happening.”
