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• RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) -- A U.S. Supreme Court decision on prayer in a New York case should end the dispute over the Rapid City Council's decades-long practice of beginning meetings with an invocation, city officials say.
• Justices said Monday that prayers to open town council meetings don't violate the Constitution, even if they routinely stress Christianity. The ruling was a victory for the town of Greece, New York.
• Prayer at public meetings also has been an issue in Rapid City. The Wisconsin-based nonprofit Freedom from Religion Foundation last year asked the city to stop beginning council meetings with a prayer. The prayers have been conducted by local ministers since at least the 1950s.
• "It's a tradition that we've been doing for a long time," Mayor Sam Kooiker told KEVN-TV.
• The foundation, which advocates for the separation of church and state, did not explicitly threaten to sue Rapid City but did send two warning letters.
• City Attorney Joel Landeen told the Rapid City Journal that the Supreme Court ruling means it would be foolish for the foundation to pursue the matter.
• "It doesn't matter anymore," he said. "I'm certainly not worried about it."
• Foundation Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor said she was dismayed by the ruling but that the group won't stop its battle against public prayer, which she called offensive.
• "Why does a city council need to pray over liquor licenses, streets and variances?" she added. "The answer does not come from above. We have to solve our own problems and I think in most cases we are up to the challenge."
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