A city council in upstate New York is not violating the Constitution when it opens its meetings with a prayer, the U.S. Supreme Court held Monday with a 5-4 vote. The town of Greece, N.Y., used to open its board meetings with a moment of silence. But in 1999, when a new supervisor took over, he instituted formal prayers, given by a rotating group of clergymen — a group that until 2008 was exclusively Christian. Often prayers were in the name of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who lives with you, for instance. Two women — one atheist, one Jewish — sued the city, saying it was an unconstitutional establishment of religion. Today, the high court held that the council was using prayer for permissible ceremonial purposes, not as an unconstitutional establishment of religion. University of Notre Dame Professor of Law and religious freedom expert Richard W. Garnett says that todays decision doesnt change the way this kind of prayer has been viewed historically. It would have been a dramatic and controversial move — a move that the [Obama] Administration, among others, argued against — to rule that legislative prayers are necessarily unconstitutional, Garnett tells us in an email. And, none of the Justices endorsed such a departure from past practices and rulings. As a result, though, the law in this area remains as muddled and difficult to apply has it has been for the past 30 years. Legislative prayers, even ones that are sectarian, are permissible, sometimes, depending on context and circumstances. In the majority opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy argued that ceremonial prayer is a tradition that dates back to this nations founding.
Posted on: Mon, 05 May 2014 18:30:06 +0000