U.S. District Court Judge Charles Siragusa recently granted summary judgment to the Town of Greece in Galloway v Town of Greece, 2010 WL 3075727 (W.D.N.Y.), a lawsuit brought by two individuals who claimed that the Greece Town Board's practice of opening its meetings with prayer led by local clergy violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. (Decision here. D&C story here.)
The plaintiffs, Susan Galloway and Linda Stephens, represented by Americans United For Separation of Church and State, made two main arguments: First, that the Town intentionally excluded non-Christians from offering prayers at meetings, thereby aligning itself with Christianity; and second, that the town impermissibly allowed "sectarian" prayer by members of both Christian and non-Christian faiths.
As to the selection of ministers, employees of the Town's Office of Constituent Services testified that they randomly invited ministers from numerous congregations in the town without any regard to the particular religion. The Town employees kept a list of congregations and regularly updated the list from listings of religious groups in a Community Guide published by the Chamber of Commerce, and the Greece Post newspaper. The only purportedly non-Christian group listed in the Community Guide was a Mormon church, which declined the Town's invitation. The only non-Christian group listed in the Post was a Bahai congregation, whose minister was invited, and did, in fact, offer the invocation at a Town Board meeting.
As to the "sectarian" nature of the prayers, the Court found that the prayers did not proselytize or advance any one, or disparage any other, faith or belief. The Court noted that the mere fact that prayers may contain a reference to Jesus or another deity does not make them proselytizing. Instead, limited references such as, "in Jesus's name," are tolerable acknowledgments of beliefs widely held among the people of this country.
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