Supreme Court Upholds Christian Prayers at City Council Meetings — Bring Right Case, They'll Endorse Public School Prayer

Illustration by Harley Pebley.

By David G. Savage
The Supreme Court said Monday that city councils and other public boards are free to open their meetings with an explicitly Christian prayer, ruling that judges may not act as "censors of religious speech" simply because the prayers reflect the views of the dominant faith.

The 5-4 decision rejected the idea that government-sponsored prayers violate the Constitution if officials regularly invite Christian clerics to offer the prayers...

Justice Elena Kagan spoke for the four dissenters and faulted the court for "allowing the Town of Greece to turn its assemblies for citizens into a forum for Christian prayer."

"When citizens of this country approach their government, they do so only as Americans, not as a members of one faith or another. And that means that even in a partly legislative body, they should not confront government-sponsored worship that divides them along religious lines," Kagan concluded.

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