Religion and Prayer in the Florida Legislature

[Vance R Koven]

On Fri, 10 Mar 2000, Volokh, Eugene wrote:

>         My apologies for repeating myself, but how exactly would an equal
> access policy work?  Would the Florida legislature really allow open the
> doors to all people to deliver any prayers they like, to whatever gods they
> like and more importantly on whatever topic they like?  I assume this is
> *not* the Florida Legislature's current policy, but can it really ever be
> the Florida Legislature's policy?

Why not adopt a "neutral" access policy such as a rotation, whereby every
member may either him/herself or through an invited proxy make a
convocational statement at the beginning of the day's session? A member
can get up on the floor and say anything (s)he wants anyway; this is
certainly not ascribed to the state as an official policy matter. Thus,
the prayer, harangue, silence or poetry slam offered at the beginning of
the session would likewise not be official state policy. If one member
didn't like what another member said, well, that happens dozens of times
every day in the legislature.

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