United States Supreme Court Rules on Prayer at Public Meetings

On May 5, 2014 the Supreme Court of the United States issued an opinion in Town of Greece v. Galloway.  Media coverage of the Court's opinion has frequently suggested that public bodies now have carte blanche to conduct formal prayer at public meetings without fear of violating the First Amendment's Establishment Clause; however, both the facts of the case and the Court's ruling are more nuanced, and school districts should proceed with caution in this area.

Since 1999, Greece, a town of 94,000 located in upstate New York, has opened its monthly town board meetings with a roll call, the Pledge of Allegiance and a prayer.  Prayers are typically led by various local clergyman invited by the town, and are overwhelmingly Christian.  In fact, from 1999 to 2007 all minsters who gave the monthly invocation were Christian, although, after the Plaintiff's in the case complained, the town invited a Jewish layman and the chairman of the local Baha'i temple to deliver prayers.  Similarly, a Wiccan priestess requested, and was granted, an opportunity to give the invocation.  The Court, after a detailed analysis of the specifics of Greece's prayer program, ruled that, even though the prayers were predominantly Christian, the town's practice did not coerce citizens to support or participate in any particular religion.  The Court focused on the fact that the prayers at issue were held during the largely ceremonial portion of the meeting before the commencement of any substantive legislative or governmental functions.  The Court also highlighted the historical precedent of prayer in other legislative bodies - including Congress. 

While the Court upheld the specific practices employed by the town of Greece, it also expressly warned that factual differences could lead to a different result, stating that "[t]he analysis would be different if the town board members directed the public to participate in the prayers, singled out dissidents for opprobrium, or indicated that their decisions might be influenced by a person's acquiescence in the prayer opportunity."  Similarly, The Court's opinion explicitly distinguishes prayer in the context of public schools.  In comparing its holding to its previous ruling in Lee v. Weisman (a case involving prayer at graduation ceremonies) the Court stated that "[t]here the Court found that, in the context of a graduation where school authorities maintained close supervision over the conduct of the students and the substance of the ceremony, a religious invocation was coercive as to an objecting student."  Given that the Court expressly preserved its previous rulings prohibiting prayer at school graduations, school districts should take care to review this precedent before implementing any prayer at school board meetings or other public events.    

You can read the full decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in the case by following the link here: 

Town of Greece, New York v. Galloway, et al., 572 U.S. ___ (2014)