An Excerpt From My Article on Town of Greece

Relying on Marsh rather than dictum in other decisions, the Supreme Court held that the Establishment Clause does not require generic or nonsectarian prayer. Indeed, as an article in the Harvard Law Review reports, “not only was mandating nonsectarian prayer not required, but requiring nonsectarian prayer was also itself prohibited.”The unbroken history of legislative prayer recognized in Marsh “permits chaplains to ask their own God for blessings of peace, justice, and freedom that find appreciation among people of all faiths.”
Indeed, as Justice Alito observed in his concurring opinion in Town of Greece, during the First Continental Congress in 1774, Samuel Adams viewed legislative prayer as a means of unifying delegates from different religious religious traditions. Adams responded to those who opposed legislative prayer because those of different religious traditions “could not join in the same act of worship,” by proclaiming that “he was no bigot, and could hear a prayer from a gentleman of piety and virtue, who who was at the same time a friend to his country.” Echoing the spirit of Samuel Adams, the majority opinion concluded, that “[s]o long as the town maintains a policy of nondiscrimination,” legislative prayer is constitutional and the “content of the prayer is not of concern to judges.”