The Supreme Court reversed, relying heavily upon our "deeply embedded... history and tradition of... [t]he opening of sessions of legislative and other deliberative public bodies with prayer." 463 U.S. at 786. Not applying any of the formal tests used to detect Establishment Clause infirmities, the Court traced, from "colonial times through the founding of the Republic and ever since," the coexistence of legislative prayer and "the principles ofdisestablishment and religious freedom." Id. The Court observed that the Continental Congress, following the colonial practice, opened its sessions with prayer offered by a paid chaplain. Id. at 787. It further noted that both the House and the Senate in the First Congress, as one of their "early items of business," decided to appoint a chaplain, established selection committees to do so, and, within three days of sending the text of the Bill of Rights to the states for ratification, enacted a law providing federal funds for the payment of chaplains' salaries. Id. at 787-90.
These historical circumstances "shed[j light not only on what the draftsmen intended the Establishment Clause to mean, but also on how they thought that Clause applied to the practice authorized by the First Congress — their actions reveal their intent." Id. at 790. Such a "unique history" led the Supreme Court "to accept the interpretation of the First Amendment draftsmen who saw no real threat to the Establishment Clause arising from a practice" of legislative chaplains. Id. at 791. Accordingly, the Supreme Court concluded (id. at 792):
hi light of the unambiguous and unbroken history of more than 200 years, there can be no doubt that the practice of opening legislative sessions with prayer has become part of the fabric of our society. To invoke Divine guidance on a public body entrusted with making the laws is not, in these circumstances, an "establishment" of religion or a step toward establishment; it is simply a tolerable acknowledgment of beliefs widely held among the people of this country.
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