Supreme Court rules that having Opening Prayers at Council Meetings does not violate the Constitution .. Atheists React

The Supreme Court has upheld the right of local officials to open town council meetings with prayer, ruling that this does not violate the Constitution even if the prayers routinely stress Christianity.

The court said in a 5-4 decision Monday that the content of the prayers is not critical as long as officials make a good-faith effort at inclusion.

The ruling was a victory for the town of Greece, N.Y., outside of Rochester.

"The prayer opportunity in this case must be evaluated against the backdrop of historical practice," the majority wrote in its opinion. "As a practice that has long endured, legislative prayer has become part of our heritage and tradition, part of our expressive idiom, similar to the Pledge of Allegiance, inaugural prayer, or the recitation of 'God save the United States and this honorable Court' at the opening of this Court's sessions."

The majority justices further argued that the intended audience is not "the public, but lawmakers themselves."

In 1983, the court upheld an opening prayer in the Nebraska Legislature and said that prayer is part of the nation's fabric, not a violation of the First Amendment. Monday's ruling was consistent with the earlier one.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority, said the prayers are ceremonial and in keeping with the nation's traditions.

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Atheists and secularists swiftly responded to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling Monday that prayers at a New York town’s local council meetings do not violate the U.S. Constitution, announcing a nationwide resource program to equip atheists and humanists to deliver secular invocations at government meetings.

The American Humanist Association, a secular activist group, seized upon the decision by focusing in on a portion of the ruling that calls for local governments to be fair to theological views within their jurisdictions.

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Rather than remain silent while Christians and other people of faith pray at government meetings, the secular group is encouraging nonbelievers to also exercise their right to offer public invocations

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