Today's decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Pelphprey v. Cobb County upholds the Cobb County Commission's practice of having invited clergy give prayers before commission meetings, and invalidates the Cobb County Planning Commission's practice.

Before both commissions, the clergy often gave prayers specific to their religions, invoking the holy figures of their religions (e.g., Jesus, Allah, etc.). The difference: The County Commission seemed to be pretty much randomly choosing clergy from the phone book and similar source; the Planning Commission seemed to be deliberately limiting its selection process to Christian clergy (and excluding some groups even within that category).

The majority concluded that its result was consistent with Marsh v. Chambers (1983) — the Court's somewhat opaque legislative prayer case — and later Establishment Clause caselaw. The dissenting judge argues that Marsh should be limited to state and federal legislatures, and shouldn't include local government entities.

I'm not sure whether the majority's general analysis of Marsh and later cases is entirely right, though on first read it strikes me as fairly persuasive. But the dissenting judge's attempts to distinguish local government entities from state and federal legislatures strikes me as unsuccessful.