Religion and SCOTUS: An Overview of Decisions by the Roberts Court

[rug]

Jul 17, 2014
By Andrew Gripp

The Roberts Court, which began in 2005 and has been altered by two replacements — Sonia Sotomayor in 2009 and Elena Kagan in 2010 — has been asked to clarify the precise nature of the church-state relationship on several matters.

One topic the court addressed is whether religious symbols may be displayed on public property:

•In 2009, the court handed down a 9-0 decision in Pleasant Grove City v. Summum allowing a town in Utah to keep its display of the Ten Commandments in a public park. The case came before the court after the city rejected a monument proposed by members of the Summum religion who wanted to display their faith’s Seven Aphorisms in the park as well.
•In 2010, Kennedy wrote the opinion for the 5-justice majority in Salazar, et al., v. Buono, which upheld the constitutionality of the 6 ½-foot Mojave Memorial Cross in California on land maintained by the National Park Service.

One case dealt with the controversial issue of prayer before public meetings:

•In 2014, Justice Kennedy wrote the majority opinion in Town of Greece v. Galloway, in which the court defended, in a 5-4 decision, the right of the city to begin its meetings with sectarian prayers, of which all but 4 of its 127 monthly sessions between 1999 and 2010 were explicitly Christian.

The case came before the court after a Jew and an atheist from the New York town — uncomfortable with having to either feign piety or stand out in front of their fellow citizens and powerful board members during these prayers — were told to close their ears or wait in the hall until the invocation was over. Kennedy did not regard such prayers as “impermissible coercion” and expressed caution about the government deciding which kinds of prayer are appropriate in public venues.

http://ivn.us/2014/07/17/religion-scotus-overview-decisions-roberts-court/

[cbayer]

1. Nice overview. The trend here is not good at all.

Where will they stop? Unless there is some change in the make up of the court, it's hard to see where this will end.