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9 Harv. L & Pol'y Rev. Online 1 (2015)

handle is hein.journals/hlpron9 and id is 1 raw text is: Ratifying the Wrong Consensus and Aggregating Inconsistently: Town of Greece v. Galloway Tom Watts* INTRODUCTION The Town of Greece, New York, used to open its town board meetings with a moment of silence. Beginning in 1999, however, the town board replaced the moment of silence with sectarian religious prayer. Ministers face the public and ask them to take part in the prayers. The prayers are nearly always Christian; while in principle any religion could be represented, the guest chaplains are drawn from congregations within the town boundaries and listed in the town's community guide, which nearly always resulted in Christians being chosen. In Town of Greece v. Galloway,' the Supreme Court held 5-4 (along standard conservative/liberal lines) that this sectarian prayer to open town board meetings did not violate the Establishment Clause. In this Comment, after briefly summarizing the case and the five resulting opinions, I will address the majority's approach to respecting longstanding practices of the legislative branch. I compare this approach to stare decisis, and I will express concerns that the majority may not have approached this issue appropriately. I will also examine Justice Kagan's dissent and argue that the position it advanced is not congruent with the reasoning it employed, because it shifts its level of aggregation unnecessarily. * JD/MPP candidate, Harvard Law School and Harvard Kennedy School (expected graduation May 2015). My thanks to the Harvard Law & Policy Review Online Editors for their helpful feedback on earlier drafts. 1 134 S. Ct. 1811 (2014).

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