Professor Brownstein Comments on Church-State Separation for Record
Professor Alan Brownstein commented for the Stockton Record on the controversy surrounding pre-meeting prayers at Lodi City Council meetings. The city's policy allows invocations but bars Christian-specific references, but in practice city leaders have turned a blind eye as pastors frequently broke the rule, according to the Record. Now, Lodi has become a focal point in the debate over the constitutionality of pre-meeting invocations, drawing national attention and demonstrators from Christian and atheist groups from around the country.
Professor Brownstein told the paper that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that invocations are allowed in state legislatures because the practice is rooted in history, but language in the decisions suggests that the prayer must be nonsectarian - a concept that has proven hard to define.
"What works for one person doesn't work for somebody else," Professor Brownstein said. "The idea of a nonsectarian prayer can be hard to implement."
Professor Brownstein, a nationally recognized Constitutional Law scholar, teaches Constitutional Law, Law and Religion, and Torts at UC Davis School of Law, where he holds the Boochever and Bird Endowed Chair for the Study and Teaching of Freedom and Equality.