now the board is being sued by those who feel it violates separation of tkhufrplg church and state, they are pushing back on this in the latest installment of our series taking liberties. douglas kennedy joins us from our newsroom. hey douglas. reporter: martha, one council member says praying it his life and he can t understand why he can t pray in public just because he s a public official. tell me the prayer you recite. i ask god to bless us that evening and bless the council. jeffrey dire believes in the importance of prayer. in fact, he says the right to pray is in the constitution. and he doesn t stop there. the reason our forefathers came here is because they did not have freedom of religion over in europe. dyers is a councilman in new jersey and for years his council members and others have been opening council meetings with a prayer. dyer says he s simply doing what our forefathers did when they came to