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MONROEVILLE — A south Alabama judge presiding in a church-related lawsuit has drawn the scorn of civil liberties lawyers for ordering his courtroom into a "circle of prayer."

About 100 people were in the courtroom on Feb. 22 when Presiding Covington County Circuit Judge M. Ashley McKathan held the unusual session, at one point getting on his knees to pray, the Press-Register reported in a story Friday.

McKathan declined to comment when contacted Friday by The Associated Press.

The American Civil Liberties Union in Montgomery said it is reviewing a complaint from someone present during the prayer, said Allison Neal, an ACLU attorney. The ACLU declined to identify the person making the complaint.

"From what the complainant described," Neal said, "this was grossly inappropriate judicial behavior."

McKathan was criticized in 2004 for repeatedly wearing in his court a robe with the Ten Commandments stitched in gold on the front.

Some 100 people, including members of the Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church and other spectators and officials, had met for a conference regarding a lawsuit over church records.

Attorneys for both parties in the lawsuit said they do not know who complained to the ACLU.

University of Alabama associate professor Paul Horwitz, a specialist in law and religion, said McKathan may have had good intentions, but his actions in calling the parties to prayer were "clearly improper."

McKathan may have thought all in the courtroom consented, but because he was the arbiter, many may have felt compelled to participate even if they did not want to, Horwitz told the Mobile newspaper.

"Even if they all consented," Horwitz said, "it is inappropriate for a judge to act in an overtly religious way in any case, but especially in one that raises religious issues. The parties need a neutral and impartial arbiter."