Atheist Activists Set to Coalesce in Front of Supreme Court as Today's Prayer Battle Looms

Atheists, agnostics and freethinkers are planning to assemble in front of the U.S. Supreme Court this morning as the justices hear arguments in the contentious Town of Greece v. Galloway prayer case.

The move is a show of support for the plaintiffs, Susan Galloway, who is Jewish, and Linda Stephens, an atheist. Their battle with the the town board in Greece, N.Y, a suburb of Rochester, marks the first time in 30 years that the high court has heard a case surrounding public prayer.

"The plaintiffs have endured harassment and vandalism for standing up for our nation's core secular founding principles," Edwina Rogers, executive director of the Secular Coalition, said in a press release. "It’s unconscionable that in a country founded on the separation of religion and government, any citizen would be coerced into prayer while trying to participate in the civic process."

The Secular Coalition for America, a secular lobbying group, will be organizing non-believers in front of the Supreme Court on Monday morning.

On the flip side, the Alliance Defending Freedom, the conservative legal group that is defending the Town of Greece, has taken to social media and its website to urge support for public invocations.

"On November 6, the U.S. Supreme Court will be asked to recognize and reject hostility to sincere religious expression," read an article on the group's website.

As TheBlaze previously reported, Town of Greece v. Galloway involves a dispute over invocations at town board meetings in Greece.

The legal battle, which is attracting attention from both sides of the church-state separatism debate, originated when Galloway and Stephens complained that all meetings between 1999 and 2007 were opened with Christian-themed prayers.

After a series of legal battles, the case has now reached the Supreme Court, where the justices' decision will potentially change how communities across the nation handle the allowance of prayer during government meetings.

Read TheBlaze's previous coverage for complete analysis on the case.

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Featured image credit: ShutterStock.com

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