1  In response to the argument that the chaplain's prayer was
2  unconstitutional in part because they were in the "Judeo-
3  Christian" tradition, and were explicitly Christian, Chief
4  Justice Burger wrote:
5            The content of the prayer is not of concern to judges where, as here, there is no
6            indication that the prayer opportunity has
been exploited to proselytize or advance any
7            one, or to disparage any other, faith or
belief.  That being so, it is not for us to
8            embark on a sensitive evaluation or to parse the content of a particular prayer.
9
10  Jd. at 795-94 (emphasis added).
11         The history of inaugural prayer, specifically Christian
12  prayer at inaugurations, is as instructive as the history of
13  legislative prayer relied on in Marsh.  Most Presidents have
14  included a prayer in their inaugural festivities, starting with
15  George Washington. See Kevin T. Baine, Education Litigation:
16  Prospects for Change, 35 Cath. Law. 283, 285 (1994).  Justice
17  Scalia, in his dissent in Lee v. Welsman, 505 U.S. 577, 632, 112
18  S.Ct. 2649, 2679-80, (1992)(holding that prayer at public
19  graduation ceremonies violates the Establishment Clause) observed
20  that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison each
21  included a prayer at their inaugurations. Apparently none of
22  these Founding Fathers found constitutional error in doing so.
23       A review of more recent inaugural prayer demonstrates that
24  the tradition that started with President Washington continues.
25  Every inauguration since at least 1937 has included a prayer
26  containing references that are recognizably Christian.  Selected
27  references to each inaugural prayer are collected in an
28  exhaustive analysis of ceremonial deism in Steven B. Epstein's
19