Supreme Court Upholds Opening Prayer At Town Council Meetings

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that opening prayer at town council meetings do not violate the Constitution even if they routinely stress Christianity. The high court ruled in 5-4 decision Monday that the content of the prayers is not critical as long as officials make a good-faith effort at inclusion. The ruling was a victory for the town of Greece, N.Y., which is located just outside of Rochester.

“The prayer opportunity is evaluated against the backdrop of a historical practice showing that prayer has become part of the Nation’s heritage and tradition,” the majority wrote in the opinion. “It is presumed that the reasonable observer is acquainted with this tradition and understands that its purposes are to lend gravity to public proceedings and to acknowledge the place religion holds in the lives of many private citizens.”

The ruling is certainly not without precedent. For instance, in 1983, the court upheld opening prayer in the Nebraska legislature after it was challenged by secular progressives. The court went so far as to say that prayer is actually part of the nation’s fabric, and is not a violation of the First Amendment.

Monday’s ruling was consistent with and relied upon the earlier ruling.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority, said the prayers are ceremonial and part of out nation’s long-standing traditions.

“The inclusion of a brief, ceremonial prayer as part of a larger exercise in civic recognition suggests that its purpose and effect are to acknowledge religious leaders and the institutions they represent, rather than to exclude or coerce nonbelievers,” Kennedy wrote.

Justice Elena Kagan, an Obama appointee and liberal justice, in a dissent for the court’s four total liberal justices, said the case differs from the 1983 decision because “Greece’s town meetings involve participation by ordinary citizens, and the invocations given — directly to those citizens — were predominantly sectarian in content.”

A federal appeals court in New York ruled that Greece violated the Constitution by opening nearly every meeting over an 11-year span with prayers that stressed Christianity.

The majority justices, however, further ruled that the intended audience “is not the public, but the lawmakers themselves.”