Tarin Swain

On March 18, 2025, the Ventura City Council hosted a City Council Closed Session/Regular Meeting in the City Council Chambers. During the public comment portion of the meeting, Tarin Swain signed up to give public comments addressing item 15 entitled “Policy Consideration—The Community Autonomy, Rights, and Equity (CARE) Policy.” The policy addressed “reproductive rights, immigrant residents, gender-diverse individuals and all residents of the City of Ventura from restrictive laws and external enforcement affairs.”

When Mrs. Swain, a devout Christian, stood at the podium to give her comment for the allotted 60 seconds, she felt compelled by religious conviction to use part of her time to pray. She had prepared a speech, but moved by her conscience, she began to pray. Immediately the room became chaotic; her prayer was met with booing, hissing, and screaming from the audience. She continued to pray through the disruptions until she was interrupted and told to stop by the mayor presiding over the meeting. The mayor told her, “We [the City of Ventura] don’t do prayer.” Speaking for roughly 6 seconds of Mrs. Swain’s time, the mayor told Mrs. Swain to finish her comments. Yet even after the mayor’s silencing of her religious speech, Swain continued to pray and finished her public comment until the conclusion of her allotted time.

During the meeting, over 130 speakers were allowed to present their viewpoints using different mediums of expression ranging from signs depicting aborted and dismembered fetuses, gestures of the sign of the cross, and even interpretations of a bird puppet’s squawks. Other speakers made comments from opposing religious viewpoints without interruption, and yet, the minute Mrs. Swain began to pray, her prayer was declared a bridge too far by the City of Ventura.

“Over 100 people spoke, including someone using a puppet, but the one person silenced was our client who simply offered a prayer,” remarked Erin Smith, Associate Counsel at First Liberty Institute. “It’s gross viewpoint discrimination when the City of Ventura allows all types of expression during public comments except for a religious prayer.”

In the demand letter, First Liberty attorneys state, “Private citizens speak on their own behalf, not on behalf of the government. Therefore, the rules that govern the prayer practices of legislative bodies do not apply to citizens’ public comments.”

In their response to our letter, the City of Ventura made it clear that they do not have a policy banning prayer during public comments, despite what the mayor said and did. They invited Tarin to come back to the next city council meeting regarding the CARE Policy and ensured her that she would be welcome to present her prayer and comments.

“We applaud the city for recognizing the constitutional error and taking positive action to remedy the unfortunate censorship imposed on Mrs. Swain’s prayer,” said Nate Kellum, Senior Counsel at First Liberty Institute. “Mrs. Swain looks forward to returning to the meeting and praying without interruption.”