Elon Law professor Scott Gaylord, speaking this month with WGHP Fox 8 News and WFMY News 2, described United States Supreme Court precedent relating to the ability of government entities to institute prayer in public meetings.
His legal analysis context for how prayer in Greensboro City Council meetings, recently instituted by Mayor Bill Knight, could meet standards for nonsectarian, nondenominational prayer at government meetings that have been found not to violate the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution under current Supreme Court case precedent.
Speaking with WFMY News 2, Gaylord said of the new prayer policy for the Greensboro Council, “A lot will depend on exactly how it’s structured. What types of prayers – are they sectarian or nonsectarian and who is invited to bring those … It’s one thing to say you are going to do it neutrally and allow everyone to come in, and then if in practice it ends up being just one particular denomination or just possibly Christianity versus other types of faiths or religion, then it could run into trouble.”
Gaylord described the Supreme Court’s current standard of allowable prayer in government meetings on WGHP Fox 8 News.
“Depending upon the actual terms that Greensboro applies in terms of the prayer policy, if they keep it nonsectarian, nondenominational, no specific references to particular deities, then the Supreme Court has held that those types of prayers are typically ok, barring some unforeseen circumstances, whereas the Forsyth County prayer has involved more sectarian reference,” Gaylord said.
Gaylord also highlighted the prayer policies of American governing institutions historically, indicating that the legal issues involve the content of prayer, not the institution of prayer itself in public meetings.
“If there are certain principles that government officials think are important, as Mayor Knight has indicated he thinks that it is an important step and is doing it not to create controversy, but because he believes it is important for the government to begin with this type of recognition of a long standing American tradition, and the United States Supreme Court again has said that prayer has a long standing tradition, and as you mentioned has been used by Congress since 1789 when it started, and the Continental Congress in 1774 was using prayer to begin its sessions even before that,” Gaylord said.
Click here, then click on the video box to the right, to view the WFMY News 2 interview with Elon Law professor Scott Gaylord.
Click here, and scroll through the video options at the bottom of the page until your reach the “Prayers & Meetings” clip, to view Gaylord’s interview with WGHP Fox 8 News.
Gaylord has also provided legal analysis related to recent developments in Forsyth County’s prayer policy for public meetings. Click here for more details.