--- title: Supreme Court Upholds Opening Prayers in Town Meetings description: The 5-4 decision is consistent with another ruling from 1983 that says opening prayers at government meetings are not unconstitutional canonical: https://time.com/87799/supreme-court-public-prayer/ author: Nolan Feeney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-05T14:39:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T07:39:16.508Z article:section: Politics og:title: Supreme Court Upholds Opening Prayers in Town Meetings og:description: The 5-4 decision is consistent with another ruling from 1983 that says opening prayers at government meetings are not unconstitutional og:url: https://time.com/87799/supreme-court-public-prayer/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Supreme Court Upholds Opening Prayers in Town Meetings twitter:description: The 5-4 decision is consistent with another ruling from 1983 that says opening prayers at government meetings are not unconstitutional twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Supreme Court Says Public Prayer at Town Meetings Is Constitutional  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney May 5, 2014 2:39 PM UTC  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney May 5, 2014 2:39 PM UTC The Supreme Court ruled Monday that opening prayers at town meetings [do not violate the Constitution](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/high-court-ruling-favors-prayer-council-meeting), even if they are specifically Christian prayers. The content of prayers is not important as long as local officials make good-faith efforts to be inclusive, the Supreme Court said in [a 5-4 decision.](http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/13pdf/12-696%5F4f57.pdf) “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 nonbelievers,” Justice Anthony Kennedy said, writing for the majority. The ruling, which is a victory for the town of Greece, N.Y., was consistent with a 1983 ruling that upheld opening prayers in the Nebraska legislature on the grounds that prayer is part of the nation’s fabric and not in violation of the First Amendment. Justice Elena Kagan said in a dissent that this case differs from the 1983 decision because “Greece’s town meetings involve participation by ordinary citizens, and the invocations given—directly to those citizens—were predominantly sectarian in content.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/87799/supreme-court-public-prayer/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/87799/supreme-court-public-prayer/"},"headline":"Supreme Court Says Public Prayer at Town Meetings Is Constitutional","datePublished":"2014-05-05T14:39:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T07:39:16.508Z","description":"The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on Monday that public prayer before town hall meetings does not violate the First Amendment and that the content isn't important as long as officials make an effort to be inclusive","url":"https://time.com/87799/supreme-court-public-prayer/","keywords":["Supreme Court","Religion","faith","prayer","scotus"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/87799/supreme-court-public-prayer/","name":"Supreme Court Says Public Prayer at Town Meetings Is Constitutional"}}]}] ```