To hold that invocations must be nonsectarian, Kennedy wrote for the five-justice plurality, would force the legislatures that sponsor prayers and the courts that are asked to decide these cases to act as supervisors and censors of religious speech. In other words, not only did the court move the goal postsfrom now on sectarian prayer will be permissible until it isntbut it also threw out the rule book and benched all the refs. From now on, says the court, its improper for government or judicial officers to second-guess the motives of the prayer policy or the prayer giver. To the extent the court ever played a role in ensuring that minority religious rights were not trammeled by well-meaning majorities who fervently believe that here in America we are all basically just country-club Judeo-Christians with different hairstyles, the jig is up: From now on we just do as the religious majorities say, so long as nobody is being damned or converted.
