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Frederick County Board Considers Meeting Prayers

FREDERICK, Md. (AP) -- The Frederick County Commissioners are looking to Virginia for guidance on adding an opening prayer to their public meetings.

The county attorney is recommending that the commissioners model any prayer policy after one developed in Chesterfield County, Va. The five-member board is scheduled to discuss the matter Thursday.

The Frederick County policy would state that legislative prayer is permitted by the U.S. Constitution as long as it is nonsectarian and voluntary, and avoids references to any particular religion, denomination or sect.

The draft is based on a Chesterfield County policy that withstood a federal court challenge by a Wiccan priestess who was barred from giving an invocation.

Republican Frederick County Board of Commissioners President Blaine Young suggested in March that the board consider adding an opening invocation.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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