GREECE, NY, Nov 1: Bankrolled by powerful outside interests, what began as a dispute aired in the pages of a town’s local newspaper next week moves to the US Supreme Court where justices could potentially roll back legal precedents that limit the role of religion in public life.
The battle pits two residents of an upstate New York town, backed by a civil liberties group advocating for the separation of church and state against a town supervisor supported by a prominent, evangelical Christian organization.
Both groups – Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Alliance Defending Freedom – have multi-million dollar budgets and litigate on a variety of related issues, often against each other.
Linda Stephens, 70, an atheist, and Susan Galloway, 51, who is Jewish, are both long-term residents of the conservative-leaning town of Greece, a Rochester suburb of around 100,000 people located about 500 km northwest of New York City. They filed a lawsuit in 2008 against the town objecting to the public prayer that precedes town board meetings, claiming it violates the US Constitution’s First Amendment prohibition on government establishment of religion.
The Supreme Court has previously said prayers that take place before a state legislative session are acceptable. Galloway and Stephens say the Greece prayers are different. Their lawyers have a series of arguments, including that the intimate nature of a town meeting makes the use of prayers more coercive than in the state legislature context. Residents, who are often active participants at town meetings, “experience substantial pressure to participate in the prayers,” thus leading to a constitutional violation, the lawyers say.
The Supreme Court will hear the case on Wednesday and rule before the term ends in late June.
It has various options for deciding the case, with conservative Christian groups asking the justices to interpret the Constitution in a way that would allow for increased religious expression by the government. Such a ruling could make it easier for government officials to justify religious displays on government property, such as Christmas nativity scenes, and religious speech by government officials at such public events as school graduations.
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