Lower Court Holding in Galloway v. Greece
Decision of the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals
Since 1999, the Town of Greece, New York, has begun its town board meetings with a short prayer. In 2008, town residents Susan Galloway and Linda Stephens brought suit against the town and Town Supervisor John Auberger in the United States District Court for the Western District of New York, asserting that aspects of this prayer practice violated the Establishment Clause. The district court granted the defendants’ motion for summary judgment, and the Plaintiffs appealed. We hold that, on this record, the district court erred in rejecting the Plaintiffs’ argument that the prayer practice impermissibly affiliated the town with a…
