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_2 A <br />f <br />City oSanta Ana <br />Administrative <br />City Manager's Authorization <br />Policies and Procedures <br />Section: <br />Policy and Procedures <br />Regarding Invocations at <br />Date Approved: <br />Number: <br />Meetings of the City Council <br />02/11/2014 <br />Legislative bodies in America have long maintained a tradition of solemnizing <br />proceedings by allowing for an opening prayer (or an invocation) before each meeting, <br />for the benefit and blessing of the legislative bodies. Such prayer before deliberative <br />public bodies has been consistently upheld as constitutional by American courts, <br />including the United States Supreme Court, Since the incorporation of the City, the City <br />Council has followed a, practice of selecting a member of local clergy to provide <br />invocations at City Council meetings. The City now desires to adopt this formal, written <br />policy to clarify and codify its invocation practices. <br />IM01;M111 W111 W", <br />In order to comply with decisions of the United States Supreme Court as well as <br />lower courts regarding the use of invocations at the meetings of legislative bodies, it is <br />wise to establish a formal policy regarding invocations at City Council meetings setting <br />forth a procedure with specific guidelines for selecting the person or persons who will <br />give the invocation. <br />The City has long maintained a tradition of solemnizing proceedings by allowing <br />for an opening prayer before each meeting, for the benefit and blessing of the legislative <br />bodies; and since the incorporation of the City, the City has followed a practice of <br />selecting a member of Police Department's Chaplain Program to provide invocations at <br />City Council meetings; and the City now desires to adopt this formal, written policy to <br />clarify its invocation practices; and such prayer before deliberative public bodies has <br />been consistently upheld as constitutional by American courts, including the United <br />States Supreme Court cases: <br />Marsh v. Chambers, 463 U.S. 783 (1983), the United States Supreme Court <br />rejected a challenge to the Nebraska Legislature's practice of opening each day of its <br />sessions with a prayer by a chaplain paid with taxpayer dollars, and specifically <br />concluded, "The opening of sessions of legislative and other deliberative public bodlies <br />with prayer is deeply embedded in the history and tradition of this country. From <br />colonial times through the founding of the Republic and ever since, the practice of <br />-1- <br />