Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says God has been good to the United States because Americans have honored Him.
“One of the reasons God has been good to us is that we have done him honor—unlike the other countries of the world that do not even invoke his name, we do him honor —in presidential addresses, in Thanksgiving proclamations and in many other ways,” he said.
The justice made that statement Saturday in a speech at Archbishop Rummel High School, a Catholic school in a New Orleans suburb.
Scalia also spoke out on the idea of government’s role in religion in public life. He says there’s nothing wrong with the idea of presidents and others invoking God in speeches.
He added that there is nothing in America’s constitutional tradition that says government cannot favor religious expression in public life.
“To tell you the truth there is no place for that in our constitutional tradition. Where did that come from?” Scalia said.
