Sentence examples for legislative prayer from inspiring English sources

The majority overlooks the distinction between legislative prayer and town Board meetings and the two distinctive audiences, legislators and citizens, to whom the prayers are addressed.

And what counts as "legislative prayer," to borrow Kennedy's phrase?

LEGISLATIVE PRAYER The case concerning prayers, Town of Greece v. Galloway, No. 12-696, came from Greece, N.Y., a town near Rochester.

Legislative prayer itself is not unconstitutional: the House and Senate both have Christian chaplains, paid from public funds, and in 1983 the court held that such prayers are "part of the fabric of our society".

The problem that the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit found was not the notion of prayer as such (the Supreme Court upheld the concept of legislative prayer 30 years ago but the fact that nearly all the prayers offered at the board meetings were Christian, with most containing explicit references to Jesus and/or Christian theology.

Nothing in the constitution prohibits it.Which is not to say that all public prayer is acceptable, Justice Kennedy is quick to add If circumstances arise in which the pattern and practice of ceremonial, legislative prayer is alleged to be a means to coerce or intimidate others, the objection can be addressed in the regular course.

The court upheld legislative prayers in 1983 as "part of the fabric of our society".

A 30-year-old Supreme Court decision says that nonsectarian legislative prayers do not violate the Constitution, but in this case, all but a handful of the prayers were performed by Christian clergy.

This is why courtroom oaths are protected along with legislative prayers, the Pledge of Allegiance and other acts steeped in religious symbolism, he said.

Religious conservative groups -- such as my denomination -- defended the legislative prayers, while so-called "strict separationist" groups called for an end to "sectarian" prayers that would alienate citizens such as the plaintiffs, one Jewish and one atheist.

First, they claimed that the sanctioned practice of opening Congress's (or any of the various state legislative) sessions with prayers made it permissible in this case.