Town of Greece v. Galloway: Future of Prayer in Legislative Proceedings?

By Brian Liu

            In what is likely to become a hallmark case in the line of prayer in government settings—and on a larger scale, public prayers in its entirety—the case of Town of Greece v. Galloway will be brought before the Supreme Court on November 6^th, after the 2^nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled to overturn a previous ruling in favor of the town of Greece.

This case comes from a complaint filed by Ms. Susan Galloway and Ms. Linda Stephens, both residents of the town of Greece (in upstate New York), who raised concern over the religious nature of the monthly town meetings. They argue, given the overwhelming number of Christian speakers who opened the town meetings with a prayer, and given that these prayers tended to be denominational in nature (using, for example, “Jesus” or “Holy Spirit” rather than an all-encompassing “God”), that the town’s practice is in violation of the Establishment Clause of the Constitution: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”

At the core of this case is to what extent church and state should be separate and whether the presence of religious speakers in these bodies is, in itself, contrary to that central principle in our American way of governance.

Opening of proceedings with prayer is an inextricably historical practice, dating back to the very first days of Congress. Still to this day, both houses of Congress have their own paid chaplains on duty, who open all sessions with a prayer. And certainly, many state and local legislatures carry on the same practice, to varying degrees of religious exhortation. It would be insurmountably difficult to remove the practice of opening prayers in its entirety; this case should not be seen as an attempt at such.

Rather, the arguments on Wednesday will be centered upon whether or not the presence of a unitarily Christian group of speakers, as in the case of Greece’s town meetings prior to 2008, is a subversive promotion of Christian beliefs. In asking the audience of these proceedings to rise and pray to a specific Christian figure, does this exceed any pretense of general divine guidance, and become a form of proselytizing for the Christian faith?  Is it tantamount to a state/public endorsement of a single religion? Is this an unconstitutional establishment of religion?

The lawyers on the Greece side will argue that the city council had no hand in selecting the opening speakers. They will argue that a separate body chose these speakers, and that they never intended for them to speak specifically in a Christian rhetoric. And they will argue that these were all volunteer speakers, and as such, there was no official “endorsement” as in the case of Marsh v. Chambers, the direct precedent to this case.

It is an enormous challenge that lies before Ms. Galloway and Ms. Stephens. Facing a town that is overwhelmingly Christian, and opposition that counts a number of congressmen, state representatives, theologians, and even the Obama administration in their ranks, their argument must be—above all—infallible. There is, as always, no predicting what course of action the Court will take, but as it seems thus far, Greece has far and away the upper hand.

Bibliography

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Denniston, Lyle. "Argument Preview: Prayer’s Role in Government." SCOTUSblog RSS. Bloomberg Law, 3 Nov. 2013. Web. 05 Nov. 2013. <http://www.scotusblog.com/2013/11/argument-preview-the-function-of-prayer/>.

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Klukowski, Ken. "Symposium: Time to Restore Longstanding Meaning – and Sanity – to the Establishment Clause in Town of Greece v. Galloway." SCOTUSblog RSS. Bloomberg Law, 3 Oct. 2013. Web. 05 Nov. 2013. <http://www.scotusblog.com/2013/10/symposium-time-to-restore-longstanding-meaning-and-sanity-to-the-establishment-clause-in-town-of-greece-v-galloway/>.

United States of America. Department of Justice. Office of the Solicitor General. By Donald B. Verrilli, Jr. BRIEF FOR THE UNITED STATES AS AMICUS CURIAE SUPPORTING PETITIONER, n.d. Web. <http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/publications/supreme_court_preview/briefs-v2/12-696_pet_amcu_usa.authcheckdam.pdf>.