WASHINGTON (CN) - Town officials from upstate New York did not improperly favor Christianity by starting monthly meetings with a short prayer, the Supreme Court ruled Monday. The case stems from the decision by officials in Greece, N.Y., to replace a moment of silence with a short prayer when opening Town Board meetings.
Town Supervisor John Auberger, who typically would call the monthly meeting to order, added the invocation in 1999. At each meeting, he would have the town clerk call the roll of board members, lead the assemblage in the Pledge of Allegiance, and then would invite the "chaplain of the month" to offer a prayer.
Two Greece residents, Susan Galloway and Linda Stephens, criticized the practice in 2007, saying the prayers aligned the town with Christianity since Christian clergy members most often were invited to participate. They also said the prayers that were offered were sectarian rather than secular.
After the town responded that anyone could volunteer to deliver the invocation, a Wiccan priestess, a lay Jewish man and the chairman of the local Baha'i congregation were invited to offer a prayer.
Up until then, though, the majority of prayer-givers were Christian clergy members whose names were on an internally developed list gleaned from the Greece Chamber of Commerce's "Community Guide."
Galloway and Stephens filed a federal complaint in 2008, claiming that the town's "chaplain of the month" list unconstitutionally preferred Christianity over other faiths, and that the prayer practice was impermissibly sectarian.
Because the prayers were aligned with Christianity, the women said that the practice established a particular religion in violation of the Constitution. And because the language used in the prayers was unique to a specific religious sect, they claimed that it established religion generally.
U.S. District Judge Charles Siragusa in Rochester ruled for the town after finding no evidence that Town Hall employees had compiled the list of prospective prayer-givers with the intent of excluding representatives of particular faiths. Citing U.S. Supreme Court precedent, Siragusa also held that the establishment clause does not exclude denominational prayers, which can add solemnity to governance.
In reversing last year, the 2nd Circuit highlighted the claim that Greece's prayer practice had the unintended effect of establishing religion.
Citing its 1983 decision in Marsh v. Chambers, a five-justice plurality of the Supreme Court, split along the usual party lines, reversed Monday.
"From the earliest days of the nation, these invocations have been addressed to assemblies comprising many different creeds," according to the lead opinion by Justice Anthony Kennedy. "These ceremonial prayers strive for the idea that people of many faiths may be united in a community of tolerance and devotion. Even those who disagree as to religious doctrine may find common ground in the desire to show respect for the divine in all aspects of their lives and being. Our tradition assumes that adult citizens, firm in their own beliefs, can tolerate and perhaps appreciate a ceremonial prayer delivered by a person of a different faith.
"The prayers delivered in the town of Greece do not fall outside the tradition this court has recognized. A number of the prayers did invoke the name of Jesus, the Heavenly Father, or the Holy Spirit, but they also invoked universal themes, as by celebrating the changing of the seasons or calling for a 'spirit of cooperation' among town leaders."