Supreme Court got it right: Opposing view

The Supreme Court got it right in Town of Greece v. Galloway. Like Congress and state legislatures, city councils may constitutionally begin their meetings by asking for divine guidance and blessings.

Thirty-one years ago, the court upheld legislative prayers in Marsh v. Chambers. Dr. Robert Palmer, a Presbyterian minister, was the longtime and state-paid chaplain of Nebraska's legislature. His prayers, unsurprisingly, were often identifiably Christian. In Marsh, the court found that this practice was entirely constitutional. After all, in the same week that Congress approved the First Amendment, it also provided for paid congressional chaplains.

All nine Supreme Court justices on Monday voiced support for Marsh. That should have made this case easy and unanimous, not a 5-4 decision.

Indeed, the Obama administration vigorously defended the town's prayer practice.

If anything, the town is more inclusive than the Constitution requires. The town could have simply appointed a local minister. Unlike the paid, permanent, Presbyterian chaplain in Marsh, the town has unpaid, rotating, volunteer chaplains. They can be clergy or lay, of any faith or none. The town's pursuit of diversity is praiseworthy.

True, some prayers will inevitably contain theological references with which some listeners disagree. And cities certainly are not required to have invocations at all. But if they do, the Constitution does not demand that prayers address God only as a vague, generic concept, as those who sued the town demanded. Government tinkering with prayer contents would be an intolerable, unconstitutional intrusion into religious freedom.

But while courts may not regulate individual prayers, the Supreme Court reaffirmed Monday that no government may exploit its overall prayer practice by aiming "to proselytize or advance any one, or to disparage any other, faith or belief."

This constitutional balance reflects our longstanding national tradition, under which legislative prayers may respectfully seek divine guidance even if they are still identifiably Christian — or Jewish, or Hindu or Muslim.

Evan Young, a partner in Baker Botts L.L.P.'s Austin office, was counsel of record for a brief supporting the town of Greece.