One of the two women who brought the original lawsuit against the town is reacting to the Supreme Court upholding the prayers at Greece Town Board meetings.
Linda Stephens, an atheist, and Susan Galloway, who is Jewish, brought the initial suit against the town several years ago. Stephens says she wasn't surprised by the high court's five to four decision.
“It was a big disappointment, but it was not a huge, huge shock because we all knew the present make-up of the U.S. Supreme Court is very, very conservative and we were hoping that Justice Kennedy, who sometimes does not always vote with the conservatives would see the merit of our side, but that didn’t happen this time. “
Stephens also doesn't think much of the court's majority opinion indicating that prayers at public meetings are part of a longstanding American tradition.
“It’s very frustrating because we have had a lot of traditions in this country like slavery, and oppression of women and all sorts of bad things that were traditions that were done away with eventually.”
Stephens says that she would like to have the prayer at town board meetings done away with completely, but at the very least, she and Galloway were pushing for better outreach by the town to try to get a more diverse selection of religions represented.