Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/18pdf/17-1717_4f14.pdf
Page Number: 32.0

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

25 

Opinion of the Court 
Opinion of ALITO, J. 

cases, we have taken a more modest approach that focuses 
on  the  particular  issue  at  hand  and  looks  to  history  for 
guidance.    Our  cases  involving  prayer  before  a  legislative 
session are an example. 
  In  Marsh  v.  Chambers,  463  U. S.  783  (1983),  the  Court 
upheld  the  Nebraska  Legislature’s  practice  of  beginning 
each  session with  a prayer  by  an  official  chaplain,  and  in 
so  holding,  the  Court  conspicuously  ignored  Lemon  and 
did not respond to Justice Brennan’s argument in dissent 
that the legislature’s practice could not satisfy the Lemon 
test.    Id.,  at  797–801.    Instead,  the  Court  found  it  highly 
persuasive  that  Congress  for  more  than  200  years  had 
opened  its  sessions  with  a  prayer  and  that  many  state 
legislatures had followed suit.  Id., at 787–788.  We took a 
similar  approach  more  recently  in  Town  of  Greece,  572 
U. S., at 577. 
  We  reached  these  results  even  though  it  was  clear,  as 
stressed by the Marsh dissent, that prayer is by definition 
religious.  See Marsh, supra, at 797–798 (opinion of Bren-
nan,  J.).    As  the  Court  put  it  in  Town  of  Greece:  
“Marsh must  not  be  understood  as  permitting  a  practice 
that  would  amount  to  a  constitutional  violation  if  not  for 
its  historical  foundation.”    572  U. S.,  at  576.    “The  case 
teaches  instead  that  the  Establishment  Clause  must  be 
interpreted ‘by reference to historical practices and under-
standings’ ” and  that  the  decision  of the  First Congress to 
“provid[e] for the appointment of chaplains only days after 
approving  language  for  the  First  Amendment  demon-
strates  that  the  Framers  considered  legislative  prayer  a 
benign acknowledgment of religion’s role in society.”  Ibid. 
  The  prevalence  of  this  philosophy  at  the  time  of  the 
founding  is  reflected  in  other  prominent  actions  taken  by 
the  First  Congress.    It  requested—and  President  Wash-
ington  proclaimed—a  national  day  of  prayer,  see  1  J. 
Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789–
1897,  p.  64  (1897)  (President  Washington’s  Thanksgiving