August 18, 2013

Overturn Wallace

By Edward H. Stewart, Jr.
Town of Greece v. Galloway can make the Supreme Court's highlight reel by setting right 25 years of bad law. Conservatives are spoiling for a fight because the 2nd Circuit's opinion is a direct attack on the longstanding American tradition of opening public meetings with an invocation or prayer, and by implication on religious speech itself. 26 amicus briefs have been filed in support of the appeal by, among others, Solicitor General Verrilli, 85 members of the House of Representatives, and 34 senators. There's good reason for the uproar. Town of Greece is just the latest outrage in the corrupt tradition of Wallace v. Jaffree, the 1985 school prayer opinion whose progeny include McCreary v. Kentucky ACLU, which evicted a display of the Ten Commandments from a courthouse hallway, and the infamous 9th Circuit pledge case. What drives Town of Greece is a notion of "affiliation" that is not objectively defined. It is almost certainly code for Jefferson's "wall of separation" or William...(Read Full Article)