Fourth Circuit Rules Against Prayer Before Legislative Meetings.....

They should not use government meeting rooms even in private for an organized religious ceremony period. And if they say they do it to help them pass leglislation or conduct city business then it is a meeting and there are sunshine law.

Really simple, if a city council person believes their religious faith requires them too say a prayer here then they can do so in private to themselves.

 

Again the only work that needs to be done is for SCOTUS telling the 4th. Stand on the Ruling SCOTUS has already made, and don't think about it anymore. Or in more blatant terms. Yo Judges of the 4th. ST#U.

Harmony? Positivity? Tradition? Who knows what each Christian group would say?

Its their Community, Right?

 

Its everyone who lives there community, we are talking the government and its officials. And you don't have to be religious to seek harmony and "positivity" nor do you need to hold a religious ceremony. And you just admitted this is a Christian group think that serges no purpose you can state. So it doesn't need to be injected into government proceedings.

 

State or municipal schools are government property, let alone public education!!!!!

 

I just said they could use any reason they want. Its to late for all of that. SCOTUS ruled that invocations are legal. That its a tradition. So they can keep on doing it.

If the majority of the community are Christian I am sure it will be a Christian Prayer. If they are Muslim, than an Islamic Prayer.

If those there don't believe in religion. Go take a smoke break, step out the room, or just don't say anything about it. Live with it whether they like it or not or if they agree or not.

 

It's a salaried not an hourly assembly. It'll cost the same with or without the invocation, as if you cared about those taxpayers.

 

It's not a ceremony.

 

Of course it is and government officals in the course of conducting government business in a government setting hace no business engaging in their private religious ceremony.

 

Liberals love freedom of speech and always advocate for it and use it in the defense of violent protests, etc., until it's a freedom they don't like. This is why they're called children.

 

What are you talking about? The same people who try to silence Christians are the same people who defend muslims.

 

Who's trying to silence Christians or anyone else. I would fight for their right toboraxtice there religion and speak out about it. On their OWN time and their OWN dime and not trying to jnject it into the government especially as government officials on government time.

 

Yet SCOTUS says it awww-ight. Ruled it can be done. So what can they do about it?

 

100% this. These *******s already are overpaid and don't get anything done. We can't get a ****ing prayer break at work, why the **** should they?

 

Legislators should be working, not ****ing praying on the public's dime.

 

It's really not that big of a deal is it? If people wanna bow their heads for 20 seconds then so be it. If they don't wanna partake then they don't have to bow their heads.

If they wanna do it outside then do it outside, if not then don't. It's not like they're having an invitation prayer where they hold hands and sing an entire hymn before a 5 minute prayer. It's probably not even 20 seconds.

 

It's a huge deal.

No praying on the tax payer dime. Not for one ****ing second. They have done NOTHING For 8 years and this will proliferate it.

NO MORE. They had 8 years of doing jack ****. Time to work. No more freebie prayer time.

 

They prayed before they got started. SCOTUS ruled, its a done deal. Lower courts shouldn't be wasting the taxpayers dime over their belief that they can stand up to the SCOTUS.

 

If jt is not then why do they insist on doing so in their role as government officials at governme tt meetings? Why do they jnsist on doing so as government officials and in their capacity as such instead of doing it on their time and dime.

And why cant they do that on their own before they take kn their role as a government official during a government meeting?

If they wanna do it outside then do it outside, if not then don't. It's not like they're having an invitation prayer where they hold. Their matters of faith have no business here.

 

Liberals mainly. They probably pray for 20 seconds or less. No harm no foul. Really, seriously, all this bickering about a short little prayer is ridiculous. Before the first sentence of the OP was written, a 20 second prayer was said and over with and people were moved on. You're acting like a liberal. I couldn't care less for muslims, but if they feel the need to drop to a knee at sunset and hold up a session I'm gonna be in, who cares? I'll do something else since I disagree with their prayers. However, 20 seconds isn't going to delay or mess anything up or make anyone late.

 

So should you, but here you are crying about someone praying.

 

Meh... You're one of the most intimidated people I've ever chatted with when it comes to God so I expect even a tiny cross around one's neck to drive you insane.

 

Believe in your celestial north korea on your own time. Not on the publics time.

 

I'm just pointing out the absurdity of prayers coming from the gov't. Was it a Christian or Muslim prayer? Was it Buddhist? Shinto? Jewish? Satanic? The gov can't favor one over the others, without violating the Constitution.

 

As a practice that has long endured, legislative prayer has become part of our heritage and tradition, part of our expressive idiom, similar to the Pledge of Allegiance, inaugural prayer, or the recitation of 'God save the United States and this honorable court' at the opening of this court's sessions," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote.

The First Amendment is not a majority rule, and government may not seek to define permissible categories of religious speech," Kennedy said. "Once it invites prayer into the public sphere, government must permit a prayer-giver to address his or her own God or gods as conscience dictates."

The case hinged on these words from the First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." That has come to be known as the Establishment Clause.

The Obama administration came down forcefully on the town's side – most notably because both houses of Congress have opened with prayers since 1789. But the prayers delivered there these days are far less sectarian than those heard in churches, temples and synagogues.

Most state legislatures open their sessions with a prayer, nearly half of them with guidelines. Many county legislatures open meetings with a prayer, according to an informal survey by the National Association of Counties. National data on prayer practices at the city, town and village levels do not exist.

Then came Marsh, in which the court gave a green light to legislative prayer that does not advance or disparage any faith.

Kennedy said Monday's decision follows in that spirit.

"The inclusion of a brief, ceremonial prayer as part of a larger exercise in civic recognition suggests that its purpose and effect are to acknowledge religious leaders and the institutions they represent, rather than to exclude or coerce non-believers," he said.....snip~

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...eme-court-government-prayer-new-york/4481969/


Justice Samuel Alito drove home that point in a separate concurrence Monday in which he called the liberals' dissent "quite niggling."....snip~