Town of Greece decision deprives Americans of religious freedom

The five-justice majority opinion in Town of Greece v. Galloway was horrendous from a religious freedom perspective. But the four-justice dissent wasn’t much better. Essentially Greece was a 9-0 decision reaffirming the Court’s 1983 Marsh v. Chambers decision which held that legislative bodies may open their meetings with a prayer notwithstanding the First Amendment prohibition against government establishments of religion. 

The majority doesn't give a hoot that America is a diverse society with a significant portion of the population that does not believe in a deity. And the minority merely pays lip service to diversity so long as the prayers are of a Judeo-Christian variety. With six Catholics and three Jews on the Court, the result is not surprising -- none supported the Jefferson-Madison principle of separation of church and state.

From a nonbeliever’s perspective, the majority’s opinion written by Justice Kennedy and the minority opinion written by Justice Kagan merely split hairs about how proselytizing the prayers can be.

The problem is that both sides consider the United States to be a religious nation, whereas the truth is that our Constitution established a secular nation that guaranteed Americans the free exercise of religion and nonbelief.

To buttress this viewpoint, I would note that the Constitution grants governments no powers in matters of religion. There are four provisions of the Constitutions which bare directly or indirectly on religion. Article VI prohibits a religious test for public office. The First Amendment prohibits Congress (and by incorporation the states) from acts respecting establishments of religion AND guarantees the free exercise of religion. And the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees equal protection of the laws (i.e., treat religions and nonbelief equally).

As I said at the beginning, the majority opinion by Justice Kennedy and joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia, Thomas and Alito, is horrendous from a religious freedom perspective. I had little-to-no faith in these Christian dominionist justices. So I was not surprised by their pro-Christian position on legislative prayer.

However I was surprised and deeply disappointed by Justice Kagan’s opinion, joined by Justices Ginsburg, Breyer and Sotomajor. I had hoped that they would throw a bone or crumb to nonbelievers – that they (or at least one or more of them) would opine that legislative prayer is inherently religious and, therefore, excessively entangles government with religion and discriminates against nonbelievers.

Marsh and now Greece should be overturned if nonbelievers are accorded full citizenship and equal dignity. Unfortunately, now in my mid-60s, I don’t expect this to occur during my lifetime. Shame, shame, shame on the Supreme Court of the United States for spoiling the dream of religious freedom.

Supreme Court has lost its legal compass

[Take 2 . . . ] 

I have been a student of the U.S. Constitution for nearly 50 years. Yesterday, the conservative Catholic majority on the Supreme Court in Town of Greece v. Galloway simply ignored the First Amendment in giving the green light for town councils starting their meetings with sectarian prayers. 

The Town of Greece decision has nothing to do with free speech and everything to do with Christian dominion. The five conservative Roman Catholics -- Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia, Thomas, Kennedy and Alito -- did an end run around the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. That clause prohibits government preferring one religion over another or religion over non religion. In other words, under the First Amendment governments must neutrality with respect to religion. 

So what does the Catholic cabal on the Court do if the Constitution gets in their way of allowing governments to promote Christianity -- simple -- ignore it. Justice Kennedy, writing for the majority, made up a sham legal argument like our country's heritage permits town councils to open their meetings with Christian prayers. Strange, it's not my Atheistic heritage or the heritage of minority religions. Rather Christian prayer is an evangelistic tactic of a tyrannical majority (or maybe just a few council members) foisting their religion on their community. In so doing, notwithstanding the majority's holding in Town of Greece, the Constitution's mandate of separation of government and religion is violated. 

And guess what -- there's no appeal of the Supreme Court's decision. The justices are not truly bound by the Constitution because they have life tenure. We can and do criticized them but this bad decision is likely to stand for decades until there is a fundamental change in the composition of the Court.

Oh, and by the way, the justices in the minority weren't much better -- for they would still permit prayers at government meetings as long as the prayers were nonsectarian. Prayer is prayer is prayer. It necessarily causes excessive governmental entanglement with religion in violation of the First Amendment. 

Town of Greece v. Galloway -- another horrendous decision by the conservative Catholic majority

The Supreme Court held 5-4 today in Town of Greece v. Galloway that sectarian prayers at government meetings do not violate the Establishment Clause. I'm sure that James Madison (Father of the Bill of Rights) and Thomas Jefferson (author of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom) are rolling over in their graves.

Justice Kennedy wrote in his majority opinion in Town of Greece: "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.” Slip op. at 19.

Unbelievable. Not true. Absolutely false. No. No. No.

As co-counsel with Mike Newdow in Newdow v. Roberts (challenging the religious practices of the 2009 presidential inaugural ceremony) -- representing over 250 nonbelievers -- I can say with certitude (just as Peter Eliasberg said during oral arguments in Salazar v. Buono (2010) that you won't find a Christian cross in a Jewish cemetery) that recitation of Christian prayers is NOT part of the heritage of nonbelievers and other nonChristians.

From this (and other decisions of the Court), I conclude that the Town of Greece decision is a fraud perpetrated by the five conservative Roman Catholic justices in furtherance of Christian dominion. They ignore the Establishment Clause at our peril.