Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/18pdf/17-1717_4f14.pdf
Page Number: 34.0

Cite as:  588 U. S. ____ (2019) 

27 

Opinion of the Court 
Opinion of ALITO, J. 

prayers  at  the  opening  of  a  session  grew  more  and  more 
diverse.  For example, an 1856 study of Senate and House 
Chaplains since 1789 tallied 22 Methodists, 20 Presbyteri-
ans, 19 Episcopalians, 13 Baptists, 4 Congregationalists, 2 
Roman  Catholics,  and  3  that  were  characterized  as  “mis-
cellaneous.”29    Four  years  later,  Rabbi  Morris  Raphall 
became  the  first  rabbi  to  open  Congress.30    Since  then, 
Congress  has  welcomed  guest  chaplains  from a  variety  of 
faiths, including  Islam,  Hinduism,  Buddhism, and  Native 
American religions.31 
  In  Town  of  Greece,  which  concerned  prayer  before  a 
town  council  meeting,  there  was  disagreement  about  the 
inclusiveness of the town’s practice.  Compare 572 U. S., at 
585  (opinion  of  the  Court)  (“The  town  made  reasonable 
efforts  to  identify  all  of  the  congregations  located  within 
its borders and represented that it would welcome a prayer 
by  any  minister  or  layman  who  wished  to  give  one”),  
with  id.,  at  616  (KAGAN,  J.,  dissenting)  (“Greece’s  Board 
did  nothing  to  recognize  religious  diversity”).    But  there 
was  no  disagreement  that  the  Establishment  Clause 
permits  a  nondiscriminatory  practice  of  prayer  at  the 
beginning  of  a  town  council  session.    See  ibid.  (“I  believe 
that  pluralism  and  inclusion  [in  legislative  prayer]  in  a 
town  hall  can  satisfy  the  constitutional  requirement  of 
neutrality”).  Of course, the specific practice challenged in 
Town  of  Greece  lacked  the  very  direct  connection,  via  the 
First Congress, to the thinking of those who were respon-
sible  for  framing  the  First  Amendment.    But  what  mat-
tered  was  that  the  town’s  practice  “fi[t]  within  the  tradi-
tion long followed in Congress and the state legislatures.”  
—————— 

29 A. Stokes, 3 Church and State in the United States 130 (1950). 
30 Korn, Rabbis, Prayers, and Legislatures, 23 Hebrew Union College 

Annual, No. 2, pp. 95, 96 (1950). 

31 See Lund, The Congressional Chaplaincies, 17 Wm. & Mary Bill of 
Rights J. 1171, 1204–1205 (2009).  See also 160 Cong. Rec. 3853 (2014) 
(prayer by the Dalai Lama).