A federal appeals court has upheld the Fredericksburg City Council's policy requiring that official prayers used to open its meetings be nonsectarian.

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously rejected council member Hashmel Turner's claim that the policy restricts his free speech rights. Turner, a council member and ordained minister, has often invoked the name of Jesus Christ in his opening prayers.

The appeals court said Wednesday that the policy forbidding that practice does not violate Hashmel's rights because the prayer is "government speech," not individual speech.

The opinion was written by retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who heard the case as a visiting judge.