Prayers in public offices

Opinion: May 25, 2013 at 12:00a.m.

Los Angeles Times: Ideally, governmental bodies would refrain from including prayers — even ecumenical, “lowest-common-denominator” ones — in their public proceedings. But if prayers are to be offered, they certainly shouldn’t be monopolized by a single religious tradition. That is how the Supreme Court should rule in a case involving a town in New York state.

On Monday, the justices agreed to hear a case involving the town of Greece, N.Y., which since 1999 has begun its official meetings with a prayer. Although the town on rare occasions has invited non-Christian leaders (including a Wiccan priestess) to deliver invocations, two-thirds of the prayers have mentioned “Jesus Christ,” “Jesus,” “Your Son” or the “Holy Spirit.”

A measured ruling

The appeals court that heard the case didn’t rule that all prayers at public meetings must be nonsectarian. But it did offer a legal test for judges to employ in evaluating the practices of local governments.

It said that “legislative prayer practice that, however well intentioned, conveys to a reasonable objective observer under the totality of the circumstances an official affiliation with a particular religion violates the clear command of the establishment clause.”

In a 1982 decision the Supreme Court said that “opening legislative sessions with prayer has become part of the fabric of our society.” But in that same opinion, then-Chief Justice Warren E. Burger pointed out that “there is no indication that the prayer opportunity has been exploited to proselytize or advance any one, or to disparage any other, faith or belief.”