The Phoenix City Council in Arizona has voted to bring back prayer during public meetings a month they scrapped the tradition to prevent Satanists from speaking at the regular event.
In January, the Satanic Temple in Tucson was given the go-signal to lead the invocation for the Feb. 17 meeting of the city council.
But less than two weeks before the meeting was to take place, the council decided to scrap the 65-year-old tradition and voted to have a silent prayer instead.
On Wednesday, the city council voted 7-2 to resume the prayers but it will only be limited to chaplains from the Phoenix fire and police departments.
City Council member Sal DiCiccio said, "Approving public prayer at City Council meetings was a big win for Phoenix. It has been a tough fight to keep prayer at our meetings, and I am happy for all of our community."
He added that the city council reversed Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton and the council's previous decision to ban the prayer.
Stanton, who supported the ban last month, voted against the measure along with council member Kate Gallego, saying it is unconstitutional, according to the Christian News Network.
But City Attorney Brad Holm insisted that it is legal.
"The answer is it's constitutional in accordance with a long line of cases, so the probabilities are that it would be upheld by a court," he said.
Holm will draft an ordinance, which the city council will vote on in a meeting slated on March 23.
But the Satanic Temple is already planning to file a lawsuit.
"Know this @MayorStanton: if the invocation forum is reopened, we are first on the schedule, or we'll file suit for discrimination (and win)," it posted on Twitter.
Meanwhile, Democratic city council member Michael Nowakowski, who is known as a supporter of LGBT rights, has come under fire for suggesting that legal rights of gays and transgenders should be revoked.
As he was speaking to the clergy last month about the council's decision to scrap the prayer at meetings, he said "I never thought that this would happen at City Hall.
"I never thought I would see the day that men and men would be married. Or that people are allowed to go into the same bathroom as my daughter," he added, according to Raw Story.
He supported the city's non-discrimination ordinance for transgender rights and the 2014 court decision legalising same-sex marriage in Arizona.
Stanton said Nowakowski's latest remarks did not reflect the views of the city of Phoenix.
"I am shocked that a council member who represents so many LGBT individuals in the heart of our city would hold such homophobic views. I condemn these ignorant comments in the strongest terms, and hope and pray the councilman will open his heart and begin to appreciate the diversity of the people he represents," he said.
