Supreme Court decides that towns can have opening prayers.

Sounds like Anthony Kennedy had a nice breakfast that day.

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that a town in upstate New York may begin its public meetings with a prayer from a “chaplain of the month.”

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the majority in the 5-to-4 decision, said “ceremonial prayer is but a recognition that, since this nation was founded and until the present day, many Americans deem that their own existence must be understood by precepts far beyond that authority of government to alter or define.”

In dissent, Justice Elena Kagan said the town’s practices could not be reconciled “with the First Amendment’s promise that every citizen, irrespective of her religion, owns an equal share of her government.”

The case was Greece v. Galloway, for those interested: Not much further to say on this subject, except for one, probably rude, observation: the NYT has a picture of one of the plaintiffs, and she looks precisely like how I would expect a person willing to take her dislike of Christian opening prayers all the way to the Supreme Court would look like.  …And I’ll just stop there, before I get mean.  Or more mean.

7 thoughts on “Supreme Court decides that towns can have opening prayers.”

  1. Heh. In reading some of the opinions about the .. opinion .. it occurs to me that the case failed simply because it proposed to tear down the gate* without explaining what the alternative would be.
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    Mew
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    * Classical reference.

  3. Who determines chaplain of the month?
    .
    When chaplain of the month is Abdul Jihadist: “We pray for death to America”.
    .
    When chaplain of the month is Al Climate Change: “We pray to Gaia that all climate deniers suffer a horrible death”.
    .
    This could get interesting.

    1. When the chaplain is Geoff Atheist …
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      “Coffee and doughnuts are in the cloak room.”
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      Mew

  4. Kagan wrote: “with the First Amendment’s promise that every citizen, irrespective of her religion, owns an equal share of her government.”

    Note the pronoun? What a sexist bigot. Oh, wait, that can only be said of men. Sorry.

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