The acting parties were not members of one particular religious persuasion, or all atheists. Their religious identities were legally identified in court paperwork as two Jews, an atheist, a Unitarian church member, and a member of the New York Society for Ethical Culture. However, despite being listed in the court papers as an atheist, plaintiff Lawrence Roth, who was raised Jewish, later denied that he was an atheist and described himself as religious and a participant of prayer. When religious affiliation was discussed during preparations for the case, Roth claimed he was "a very religious person, but not a churchgoer" and that he said prayers but was unsure of what prayer could accomplish. This resulted in the group's lawyer telling him "You're the atheist." Roth later stated "apparently, you have to have an atheist in the crowd, so we started from there."