Justices: Devil-worshipers OK with prayer?

So, the Supreme Court takes on whether government meetings can begin with a prayer and the justices' questioning Wednesday devolves into consideration of "devil worshiping." No kidding.

And the question came from the court's staunchest conservatives, Antonin Scalia.

Bryan Resnick of the National Journal captured the give-and-take with Douglas Laycock, a professor of law and religion at the University of Virginia, who said that prayers could be allowed if they were not sectarian. 

The case the high court is hearing centers around a small N.Y. town that begins its monthly meetings with a Christian prayer. The suit was brought by residents who say having only Christian prayers is a government endorsement of such prayers and that's wrong.

On Wednesday, the justices queried Laycock about whether there could be one prayer that different kinds of worshipers would find unoffensive. That led down the rabbit hole of talk about - devil worshipers.

Some of the dialogue drew laughs:

JUSTICE SAMUEL ALITO: All right. Give me an example. Give me an example of a prayer that would be acceptable to Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus. Give me an example of a prayer. Wiccans, Baha'i.

CHIEF JUSTICE jOHN ROBERTS: And atheists.

JUSTICE SCALIA: And atheists. Throw in atheists, too.

(Laughter.)

MR. LAYCOCK: Well, some religions that believe in more than one god believe that all their many gods are manifestations of the one god. But the true polytheists I think are also excluded from the McCreary dissent.

JUSTICE SCALIA: What about devil worshippers?

(Laughter.)

MR. LAYCOCK: Well, if devil worshippers believe the devil is the almighty, they might be OK. But they're probably out —

(Laughter.)

Of course, this really isn't a laughing matter. How the Supreme Court rules will affect how many towns and cities begin their government meetings. A federal injunction has blocked Rowan County  here in North Carolina from beginning its board of county commissioners' meetings with one specific prayer. The ACLU though says the case before the Supreme Court is different from the case against Rowan County. The high court case, they say, involves clergy delivering prayers at governmental meetings and the Rowan case involves elected officials themselves delivering prayers.

Still, many eyes are on the Supreme Court this week for guidance. The justices seemed to have a difficult time with the question according to Adam Liptak of the New York Times.

Earlier, in a rare alliance, President Obama’s Justice Department and congressional lawmakers — nearly all Republicans — filed legal briefs  asking the court to rule in favor of prayer at government meetings.

The answer will be interesting - coming from a group, the Supreme Court, that begins its sessions an invocation to God.