Associate Professor of Law Scott Gaylord's article, "When the Exception Becomes the Rule: Marsh and Sectarian Legislative Prayer Post-Summum," appears in the Spring 2011 edition of the University of Cincinnati Law Review.
“Despite the pervasiveness of legislative prayer and the importance of the constitutional issues it raises, the United States Supreme Court did not decide a legislative prayer case until Marsh v. Chambers in 1983,” Gaylord writes. “In Marsh, the Court upheld legislative prayers generally but did not explain how Marsh fit within the Court’s broader Establishment Clause jurisprudence … This Article examines recent developments that undermine the traditional view of Marsh as a limited exception and places Marsh at the center of the Court’s current view of facially religious government speech.”
Gaylord had primary responsibility for preparing the “Brief for Amicus Curiae Independence Law Center in Support of Forsyth County, North Carolina” in Joyner v. Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Forsyth County is currently in the process of filing an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court. Gaylord has been asked to submit an amicus to the United States Supreme Court detailing why the case merits the Court’s consideration.
Gaylord’s article in the University of Cincinnati Law Review is available here.
In November, Gaylord presented at the Loyola University Chicago School of Law’s Constitutional Law Colloquium, analyzing recent U.S. Supreme Court cases related to the Establishment Clause in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Click here for a report on that presentation.