Town of Greece v. Galloway

Town of Greece v. Galloway
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued November 6, 2013 Decided May 5, 2014
Full case name	Town of Greece, New York v. Galloway et al.
Docket nos.	12-696
Citations	572 U.S. ___ (more)
Argument	Oral argument
Opinion announcement	Opinion announcement
Prior history	681 F. 3d 20 (reversed)
Holding
The town of Greece does not violate the First Amendment's Establishment Clause by opening its meetings with sectarian prayer that comports with America's tradition and doesn't coerce participation by nonadherents. The judgment of the Second Circuit is reversed.
Court membership
Case opinions
Majority	Kennedy (except as to Part II-B), joined by Roberts, Alito (in full); Scalia, Thomas (except as to Part II-B)
Concurrence	Alito, joined by Scalia
Concurrence	Thomas, concurring in part and concurring in the judgment, joined by Scalia (as to Part II)
Dissent	Breyer
Dissent	Kagan, joined by Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. I
This case overturned a previous ruling or rulings
Marsh v. Chambers (in part)

Town of Greece v. Galloway, 572 U.S. ___ (2014), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the court decided that the Town of Greece, New York may permit volunteer chaplains to open each legislative session with a prayer. The plaintiffs were Susan Galloway and Linda Stephens, represented by Americans United for Separation of Church and State. They argue that the prayers violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled against the town, and on May 20, 2013 the Supreme Court agreed to rule on the issue. On May 5, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of the Town of Greece, and that the town's practice of beginning legislative sessions with prayers does not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

Does the town of Greece, New York, impose an impermissible establishment of religion by opening its monthly board meetings with a prayer?

By a 5-4 vote, the Court ruled that the town's practice did not violate the Establishment Clause. The majority opinion authored by Justice Kennedy stated: "The town of Greece does not violate the First Amendment by opening its meetings with prayer that comports with our tradition and does not coerce participation by nonadherents." The court concluded that the town's practice of opening its town board meetings with a prayer offered by members of the clergy does not violate the Establishment Clause when the practice is consistent with the tradition long followed by Congress and state legislatures, the town does not discriminate against minority faiths in determining who may offer a prayer, and the prayer does not coerce participation with non-adherents.

The majority held that sectarian prayers at government meetings are permissible under the Constitution. “To hold that invocations must be non-sectarian would force the legislatures sponsoring prayers and the courts deciding these cases to act as supervisors and censors of religious speech,” Kennedy wrote for himself and the conservative members on the court. Lawmakers and judges would otherwise have to police prayer, he wrote, involving “government in religious matters to a far greater degree than is the case under the town’s current practice of neither editing nor approving prayers in advance nor criticizing their content after the fact.” This means that prayers are allowed to invoke particular religious affiliations without running afoul of the First Amendment prohibition against endorsement of religion at federal, state or local level.