Court finds preponderance of Christian prayers at city council meeting a function of demographics, rather than an unconstitutional establishment of religion.
Attendees of city council meetings brought action against city in a California state court requesting declaratory and injunctive relief from the city’s policy of permitting prayers that mention Jesus, arguing that both the invocations and the policy amounted to an establishment of religion.
The court of appeals held that city council’s facially neutral practice of opening its meetings with privately led prayers did not effect an unconstitutional establishment of religion in violation of First Amendment and California constitution.
Notwithstanding that the majority of city-council invocations had been Christian, city council’s facially neutral practice of opening its meetings with privately led prayers did not effect an unconstitutional establishment of religion in violation of First Amendment and California constitution. The court found that the city had taken proactive measures to deliver on its promise of inclusivity, stressing, both to the public and to invited prayer-givers, the policy’s nonsectarian aims. The fact that most so far had been Christian was merely a function of local demographics and the choices of the religious leaders who responded out of their own initiative to the city’s invitation.