Olens Supports Legislative Prayer

by Rodney Thrash

Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens and 22 other attorneys general have filed an amicus brief asking that the United States Supreme Court overturn a lower court's ruling that legislative prayer at the beginning of a government assembly violates the Establishment Clause.

The brief was filed in response to a case known as Town of Greece N.Y. v. Galloway.

“The legality of legislative prayer is a major constitutional question before the United States Supreme Court, which will impact every government in Georgia,” Olens said in a statement. “The same Congress that drafted the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses of the Constitution also regularly opened in prayer. Our Nation has a centuries-long tradition of balancing religious freedom and public prayer, and I believe that tradition must be protected.”

Olens, an East Cobb resident, was chairman of the Cobb County Board of Commissioners in August 2005 when the ACLU of Georgia filed a lawsuit on behalf of five Cobb County residents who sought to keep legislative prayers free of references to specific religious denominations.

The residents argued that the Establishment Clause permits only nonsectarian prayers for meetings. In that case, known as Pelphrey v. Cobb County, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed with that assessment.

In the Town of Greece N.Y. v. Galloway brief, Olens and the other attorneys general said "guidance is needed from the Court clarifying that legislative prayer is permissible without requiring the prayers be screened for sectarian references."