Ethics

O'Connor Hears Legislative Prayer Case

By Ed Brayton

Sandra Day O'Connor may be retired as a Supreme Court justice, but she's stayed busy by riding circuit and sitting as an appeals court justice around the country. She's on a 4th circuit panel at the moment hearing an interesting legislative prayer case.

A policy prohibiting a Virginia city council member from opening meetings with a prayer mentioning Jesus borders on restricting his right to free speech, lawyers told a federal appeals court Wednesday.

Attorneys for the Rev. Hashmel Turner argued his case before a panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that included a visiting judge, retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Should be an interesting decision. The problem here is that the Supreme Court says that legislative prayers are okay as long as they're "non-sectarian", but they provide little guidance on what constitutes a non-sectarian prayer - assuming there is such a thing.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on March 22, 2008 (boomark / email).