The Sixth Circuit, also sitting en banc, recently surveyed this history and upheld a municipal prayer policy virtually identical to Rowan Countys. See Bormuth v. County of Jackson, 870 F.3d 494 (2017). The Sixth Circuit acknowledged that its decision was in conflict with the Fourth Circuits but found the latter unpersuasive, id., at 509, n. 5 -not least because the Fourth Circuit apparently did not consider the numerous examples of [legislator-led] prayers in our Nations history, id., at 510. Thus, the Sixth and Fourth Circuits are now split on the legality of legislator-led prayer. State and local lawmakers can lead prayers in Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and Michigan, but not in South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, or West Virginia. This Court should have stepped in to resolve this conflict.
I respectfully dissent.