A federal appeals court ruled that people who do not believe in a deity can be blocked from delivering invocations in the Pennsylvania statehouse.
The 3rd Circuit Court in Philadelphia upheld a policy within the Pennsylvania House of Representatives that the prayers for opening legislative sessions can only be given by a state legislator or “a member of a regularly established church or religious organization,” NBC News reported.
The split 2-1 ruling, which reverses a lower-court decision, came after a 2016 lawsuit filed by seven nontheists. A member of the Dillsburg Area Free Thinkers asked to give an invocation in 2014 that was rejected by then-House Speaker Sam Smith, a Republican.
The court ruled that the policy doesn’t violate an atheist or agnostic individual’s First Amendment rights because it follows the “historical tradition of legislative prayer” and qualifies as government speech, which allows a government entity to select specific views it wishes to express.
“First, only theistic prayer can satisfy all the traditional purposes of legislative prayer. Second, the Supreme Court has long taken as given that prayer presumes invoking a higher power,” the court ruled.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State, who argued the case, called the Friday ruling “disturbing” in a statement.
“It’s yet another in a problematic line of recent decisions that allow government entities to endorse and promote religion (just about always Christianity) as long as it’s being done for ‘historic’ purposes,” the statement read. “While treating non-theists like second-class citizens may have been part of our nation’s history, it’s a shameful practice, hardly something we ought to uphold today.”
In June, a Satanic invocation was delivered after a lawsuit was brought against a borough in Alaska that banned invocations from unofficial organizations. The American Civil Liberties Union battled the county-equivalent’s policy out in court, culminating with a superior court ruling that Kenai Peninsula Borough could not restrict the invocations at assembly meetings.
