Does the Satanic Temple have a constitutional right to pray before city council meetings? A appeals court said no.

From Reuters. A federal appeals court has rejected a challenge by the Satanic Temple to Boston’s custom of inviting religious leaders to deliver prayers or sermons at the start of city council meetings, a practice it challenged after it was refused an opportunity to participate.

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The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday held that the Satanic Temple failed to show that councilors ran afoul of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment by inviting speakers based on their religions, saying the record showed they instead based invites on speakers’ contributions to the local community.

U.S. Circuit Judge Sandra Lynch said councilors had invited speakers of various religious faiths, not just Christianity, based on their work in their districts and the city at large, and that several said they had no familiarity with any such work in Boston by the Salem, Massachusetts-based Satanic Temple. …

At issue in its lawsuit is a long-standing custom dating back to the 1800s in which city councilors in the liberal-leaning city of Boston invite a member of the public, often clergy, to speak before the start of its weekly meetings. …

Yet the Satanic Temple said councilors had refused since 2016 to extend an invitation to one of its members. Among the councilors the temple approached about getting invited was Michelle Wu, now the city’s Democratic mayor. …

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(Excerpt from Reuters. Photo Credit: Marc Nozell – https://www.flickr.com/photos/marcn/33726363098/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=145571098)