Kramer Levin Files U.S. Supreme Court Amicus Brief in Church-State Case

On September 23, 2013, Kramer Levin filed an amicus curiae brief in the United States Supreme Court on behalf of the American Jewish Committee and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs in the case of Galloway v. Town of Greece. The lower court had found that the Town’s method of offering prayers to open meetings of the town board—in which the majority of prayers were overtly Christian—created the impermissible impression that the Town favored Christianity over other faiths. The Kramer Levin brief argued that the Supreme Court should reject pleas to undo almost seventy years of Establishment Clause decision-making in which the Court has held that government can violate the Constitution by favoring one religion or religion in general, even if it does not engage in outright coercion or explicit efforts to proselytize others. The brief pointed out that if the Court were to move to a much narrower coercion or proselytization test, it would re-open long-settled and divisive issues such as prayer in public schools. The brief was written by Litigation partner Eric A. Tirschwell and associate Craig L. Siegel, with assistance from associates Jeffrey H. Price, Leah B. Grossi and Rachel Feinberg.