We Call Them School Boards for a Reason

Over recent decades, American courts have become increasingly receptive to religiosity in the public square. For example, in its 2014 decision in Town of Greece, NY v. Galloway, the US Supreme Court upheld the practice of opening town council meetings with a prayer. In the wake of this decision, questions have been raised regarding the constitutionality of prayer in the context of public school board meetings. This article examines this issue. It first presents the legal status quo ante, under which federal appellate courts consistently had struck down school-board prayer as a violation of the Establishment Clause. The article then turns to the Court’s decision in Town of Greece and considers the arguments regarding the extent to which that decision altered the status quo. The article focuses on Justice Anthony Kennedy’s opinion for the Court in Town of Greece along with his opinion for the Court in Lee v. Weisman, which struck down prayer at public school graduations. The author concludes that those opinions, particularly the way in which Justice Kennedy characterizes the school-student relationship in Lee, support a finding that school-board prayer still violates the Establishment Clause.

Certiorari · Concurring opinion · Constitutionality · Context (archaeology) · Economic Justice · Establishment Clause · First amendment · Majority opinion · Original jurisdiction · Political science · Politics · Prayer · Public opinion · Sociology · Status quo · Supreme court · Theology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · History · Law · Law, Rights, and Freedoms · Legal Issues in Education