Maybe also because Marsh did not want to go into what the compromise actually was (i.e., the ambiguity in Marsh as to whether "sectarian" legislative prayer is constitutional). And maybe also because compromises are hard for people to accept when they don't really see any underlying principle behind them.
Christopher C. Lund Assistant Professor of Law Mississippi College School of Law 151 E. Griffith St. Jackson, MS 39201 (601) 925-7141 (office) (601) 925-7113 (fax) >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 07/25/08 12:14 PM >>> I think the interesting question in regard to Marsh -- for the sake of the argument presuming it has failed -- is why it has failed: because sectarians are willing to use it as a means of coercing others into accepting their religious prayers and pronouncements, or because secularists are unwilling to accept any religious display as unobjectionable? Or maybe a bit of both? Richard Dougherty -----Original Message----- From: "Christopher Lund" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent 7/25/2008 9:16:51 AM To: religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Appeals Court Bans Prayer 'in Jesus' name'"That kind of jockeying for government recognition of particular denominations-- or for an implicit government statement rejecting supposed antireligious views-- seems to be just the kind of political divisions along religious lines that the Establishment Clause was supposed to prevent." Yes indeed to Professor Friedman's statement, and (I would add) it's also the sort of divisions that Marsh itself was trying to prevent. I tend to see Marsh as an earlier Van Orden -- government gets to act religiously, but not too much. Breyer says in Van Orden that upholding the momument (not striking it down) is the best way to avoid "religiously based divisiveness." I bet Marsh court had a thought or two along those lines -- that the best way to keep the peace was by approving legislative prayer with some (what it thought to be modest) strings attached. Can we all agree that Marsh has utterly failed in this regard? Best, Chris Christopher C. Lund Assistant Professor of Law Mississippi College School of Law 151 E. Griffith St. Jackson, MS 39201 (601) 925-7141 (office) (601) 925-7113 (fax) _______________________________________________ To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
