Local Officials React To Supreme Court Ruling On Meeting Prayer

BERLIN — The U.S. Supreme Court this week upheld the right of local governments to open meetings with a prayer, ruling it does not violate the Constitution. It was a decision lauded in some communities around the Lower Shore that have long established the practice.

The Supreme Court on Monday voted 5-4 to uphold the right to open local government meetings with some form of prayer or recognition of a higher power after the practice was challenged in an upstate New York town and other places around the country including neighboring Sussex County, Del.

The case before the Supreme Court was specific to the town of Greece, N.Y., which was sued seven years ago for its practice of opening town meetings with prayer. The complainants alleged the opening prayers in general violated the separation of church and state spelled out in the Constitution, and more specifically the prayers offered before meetings were largely Christian.
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