legislative prayer

The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle has this feature on the plaintiffs who are challenging the practice of conducting mostly Christian prayers during town meetings for Rochester suburb Greece. The U.S. Supreme Court is slated to hear oral argument on the issue tomorrow.

The plaintiffs said they are not anti-religion but they think religious involvement pollutes government: "'We are trying to protect religion. Whenever government gets involved in religion, it gets corrupted. I'm standing up for religion,"' plaintiff Susan Galloway told the Democrat & Chronicle.

One law professor said the Supreme Court has not considered legislative prayer in 30 years after the court established "the 'reasonable observer test,' for determining if legislative prayers constituted an unallowable endorsement of religion," the D&C also reported.