Mayor orders man removed after he didn't stand for Pledge of Allegiance

[Ms. Toad]

126. I was discussing what happened - not what might happen at some other place and time.

Richardson was NOT required to stand for the prayer. He was required to stand for the pledge. In other words, other than hearing the words, his forced participation was in the non-religious speech.

Had he been forced to stand for a prayer, then I would agree that it is a mixed religion/speech issue because it would be both forced speech and forced participation in a religious exercise.

The fact that the commissioner offered a prayer may well violate Greece. The fact pattern in Greece was, "the monthly town board meetings in Greece, New York, have opened with a roll call, a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, and a prayer given by clergy selected from the congregations listed in a local directory. . . . Greece neither reviewed the prayers in advance, nor provided guidance as to their tone or content in the belief that exercising any degree of control over the prayers would infringe both the free exercise and speech rights of the ministers."

That fact pattern of Greece includes two things not necessarily present here: (1) the prayer was not given by clergy - but rather by government officials and (2) the prayers may not be representative, over time, of the range of local religions. Greece did not address the former - it only addressed prayers given by local clergy. As to the latter, I haven't seen any description of whether, over time, the prayers were representative of the religions in the local community.