In late 1994, near the time of the mayoral election, then-council member Marion Barry introduced legislation that would allow "student-led," voluntary prayer in the DC public schools. That legislation never went anywhere (in spite of considerable support from Chairman Clarke and others), but in 1995 local right-wing religious activists began a campaign to place the issue on the 1996 election ballot as a popular initiative.

GLAA filed an amicus brief with the court objecting to the placement of the initiative on the ballot, arguing that this initiative was illegal, since the Human Rights Act prohibits initiatives overturning its civil rights components. In his 1996 ruling against the initiative, Judge Geoffrey Alprin, while strangely rejecting the Human Rights Act argument, nonetheless stated that the initiative constituted a clear violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.