The Supreme Court on Monday upheld the centuries-old tradition of offering prayers at government meetings.
The 5-4 decision avoided two alternatives that the justices clearly sought to avoid: having government leaders parse prayers, or outlawing them altogether. It was written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, with the court's conservatives agreeing and its liberals dissenting.
It was a narrow victory for the Town of Greece, N.Y., which was taken to court by two women who argued that a plethora of overtly Christian prayers at town board meetings violated their rights.
While it has upheld the practice of legislative prayer, most recently in a 1983 case involving the Nebraska legislature, the case of Town of Greece v. Galloway presented the justices with a new twist: mostly Christian clergy delivering frequently sectarian prayers before an audience that often includes people with business to conduct.
The legal tussle began in 2007, following eight years of nothing but Christian prayers in the town of nearly 100,000 people outside Rochester. Susan Galloway and Linda Stephens, a Jew and an atheist, took the board to federal court and won by contending that its prayers – often spiced with references to Jesus, Christ and the Holy Spirit -- aligned the town with one religion.
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