Blessings And Peace Officers Be Upon You?

In 2006 Julie Anne Yencer was arrested for drunken and reckless driving by a Davidson College police officer. She pleaded guilty but then appealed and asked a North Carolina state court to dismiss the charges because of Davidson's affiliation with the Presbyterian Church.

The college police officers' powers, including their power to arrest her, she argued, violated the separation of church and state. Why? Because, she argued, the officers ultimately answer to trustees, 80 percent of whom must be, under the college's bylaws, active members of a Christian church. Her lawyer argued that the state’s power cannot be exercised by a sectarian institution.