Description: In 2008, Americans United for Separation of Church and State sued the town of Greece on behalf of local residents Susan Galloway and Linda Stephens, who claim that continued Christian prayer at the opening of town meetings is unconstitutional. Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing the town argue that the practice of deliberative bodies to invoke divine guidance and blessings upon their work has always been constitutional.
ADF to America: Public prayer is OK, secularist threats empty
Letter to local governments explains recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling affirming constitutionality of opening prayers
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
ADF attorneys represented the town of Greece, N.Y. in the lawsuit. The letter is being sent to hundreds of communities who have been targeted for maintaining the American tradition of opening public meetings with uncensored prayers.
“Since the Supreme Court has again affirmed that Americans are free to pray, government groups and organizations should not be bullied by activists who say otherwise,” said ADF Senior Counsel David Cortman. “In America, we tolerate a diversity of opinions and beliefs; we don’t silence people because we don’t like what they say. Opening public meetings with prayer is a cherished freedom that the authors of the Constitution themselves practiced. Speech censors should have no power to silence volunteers who pray for their communities just as the Founders did.”
The ADF letter explains that “Despite concentrated efforts by activist groups to have prayers silenced or purged of distinctly Christian references, the Supreme Court has—for the second time now—declared that opening prayers do not run afoul of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause.”
“Communities shouldn’t be forced to forfeit their freedom to appease someone who doesn’t like what a prayer-giver says or believes,” said ADF Senior Counsel Brett Harvey. “Opponents of prayer want to use government to attack our freedom, but the Constitution established our government to protect our freedom. The Supreme Court’s decision to protect public prayer effectively removed an avenue of attack employed across the country by those whose true intent was to eliminate public invocations.”
In the letter, ADF offers governments and organizations help crafting their invocation policies, as well as free legal assistance if these policies are legally challenged.