{"id":122133,"date":"2014-05-06T09:00:14","date_gmt":"2014-05-06T13:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/?p=122133"},"modified":"2014-08-29T13:32:26","modified_gmt":"2014-08-29T17:32:26","slug":"scotus-prayer-case-reporting-opinion-in-one-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2014\/05\/scotus-prayer-case-reporting-opinion-in-one-story\/","title":{"rendered":"SCOTUS prayer case: reporting, opinion in one story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/iframe><\/p>\nLike many towns, prayer opens government meetings in Greece, N.Y. Unlike many towns, a couple of citizens voiced their offense to the practice \u2014 all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.<\/p>\nAs we heard yesterday, the high court sided with the town. And of course, the other side is crying foul.<\/p>\nEven including CNN, which was supposed to be doing straight reporting.<\/p>\nHere\u2019s how CNN\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/religion.blogs.cnn.com\/2014\/05\/05\/supreme-court-religious-minorities-dont-have-a-prayer\/?fb_action_ids=10202953932461990&fb_action_types=og.recommends%20\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Belief Blog item<\/a> by Daniel Burke led off the report on the high court\u2019s decision yesterday. And keep in mind that it\u2019s not<\/em> marked as opinion or analysis or commentary:<\/p>\n<blockquote>If you don\u2019t like it, leave the room.<\/p>\nThat\u2019s the essence of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy\u2019s advice for atheists and others who object to sectarian prayers before government meetings.<\/p>\nIn a 5-4 decision written by Kennedy, the Supreme Court allowed Greece, New York, to continue hosting prayers before its monthly town board meetings \u2013 even though an atheist and a Jewish citizen complained that the benedictions are almost always explicitly Christian.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nWhy did the Supreme Court rule as it did? We don\u2019t find out until the ninth paragraph. Before then, we need to be softened up on the right way to view it.<\/p>\n\u201cMany members of the country\u2019s majority faith \u2014 that is, Christians \u2014 hailed the ruling,\u201d Burke continues. He then lists some of the supporting organizations and quotes their leaders on what they see as the benefits of the ruling.<\/p>\nJust kidding, just kidding; he doesn\u2019t do that at all. After that token paragraph acknowledging another side, he moves to his real interest: who objected and why.<\/p>\n<blockquote>Many members of minority faiths, as well as atheists, responded with palpable anger, saying the Supreme Court has set them apart as second-class citizens.<\/p>\nGroups from the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism to the Hindu American Foundation decried Monday\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n\u201cThe court\u2019s decision to bless \u2018majority-rules\u2019 prayer is out of step with the changing face of America, which is more secular and less dogmatic,\u201d said Rob Boston, a spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which litigated the case.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nFinally, the story adds five paragraphs on Kennedy\u2019s majority opinion, which leans heavily on historic precedent going back to the First Continental Congress. The story also cites a poll that found less than 23 percent of Americans object to prayers at public government meetings. (This, of course, counters Rob Boston\u2019s argument that such prayers don\u2019t match the American mood, but he apparently wasn\u2019t asked to account for the contradiction.)<\/p>\nBurke then asks about people \u201cwho like their local government meetings to be religion-free?\u201d Interesting choice of word, that: The absence of religion spells freedom. He then gives 11 paragraphs to the dissenting opinion of Justice Elena Kagan, whom he points out is Jewish.<\/p>\nShe spins a hypothetical case of a Muslim at a town meeting where a minister invites everyone to pray in the name of Jesus. In her view, avidly reported by Burke, the Muslim must either comply and violate his beliefs, or object and risk giving offense.<\/p>\nBut the article doesn\u2019t report that the majority Supreme Court opinion, too, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/13pdf\/12-696_4f57.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">dealt with the question<\/a> of coercive effects:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<blockquote>The analysis would be different if town board members directed the public to participate in the prayers, singled out dissidents for opprobrium, or indicated that their decisions might be influenced by a person\u2019s acquiescence in the prayer opportunity. No such thing occurred in the town of Greece.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThen Burke cites a study in which scholars in California say that in First Amendment issues, the Supreme Court justices are \u201copportunistic,\u201d voting along ideological lines \u2014 conservative with conservative causes, liberal with liberal causes. If that\u2019s so, it\u2019s a double-edged sword: People on each side are biased, and no one looks solely at the merits of a case. This would make moral and ethical arguments \u2014 like the ones that lace the CNN article in question \u2014 futile.<\/p>\nNor does the piece note that the majority justices differed on how far a city like Greece should to go accommodate other faiths, although CNN\u2019s Bill Mears reports such divisions in the accompanying news video.<\/p>\nThe story also doesn\u2019t explain why Justice Sonia Sotomayor \u2014 a Catholic, as a gratifyingly balanced <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2014\/05\/05\/supreme-court-prayer_n_5266930.html\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Associated Press story<\/a> says \u2014 joined the dissenting justices. If personal bias sways a judge\u2019s judgment, she somehow fought off the urge.<\/p>\nFinally, Justice Kennedy has long been considered not a conservative but a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=justice+anthony+kennedy+middle&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=sb#channel=sb&q=justice+anthony+kennedy+middle&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">middle-of-the road justice,<\/a> often casting a swing vote in divisive issues. A Cornell law professor even called him \u201cthe first gay justice\u201d for his role in striking down the federal Defense of Marriage Act \u2014 a quote that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2013\/06\/27\/politics\/scotus-kennedy\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">appeared on CNN.com<\/a> itself.<\/p>\nAll those matters might have been easier to spot without mixing reporting with editorializing.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Like many towns, prayer opens government meetings in Greece, N.Y. Unlike many towns, a couple of citizens voiced their offense to the practice \u2014 all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. As we heard yesterday, the high court sided with the town. And of course, the other side is crying foul. Even including CNN, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1568,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,7,106,4,1],"tags":[740,189,336],"class_list":["post-122133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ethics","category-journalism","category-religious-liberty","category-social-issues","category-uncategorized","tag-cnn-belief-blog","tag-first-amendment","tag-prayer"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>SCOTUS prayer case: reporting, opinion in one story<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Like many towns, prayer opens government meetings in Greece, N.Y. 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