In 1985, the Illinois House of Representatives adopted a resolution authorizing the establishment of a "prayer room" in the state capital building, as a "quiet and special place where the members of the General Assembly may seek God, the comfort of His presence, the light of His guidance, and the strength of His love."
To alleviate any constitutional questions, the room was made "nonsectarian," and the costs of renovation and maintenance were to be borne by private contributions. Shortly after the resolution was adopted, it was challenged in court on the grounds that it was an unconstitutional "establishment of religion."
A federal appeals court rejected this challenge, largely on the basis of a 1983 decision of the United States Supreme Court finding that the Nebraska legislature's practice of opening each session with a prayer read by a state-employed chaplain did not violate the First Amendment's nonestablishment of religion clause.
The appeals court observed that "if legislators may collectively bow their heads while a clergyman, paid from public funds, invokes the Deity to bless and assist their efforts, it seems absurd to find fault with the designation of a room in which they may pray or meditate privately as they individually see fit."
The court also based its ruling in part on "a degree of deference to the internal spiritual practices of another branch of government or of a branch of the government of another sovereign," and upon a tradition of legislators acknowledging, in relatively modest and nonintrusive ways, some role for spiritual values in their work." However, the court cautioned that "the intrusion of sectarian influences and religious emphases [in the decoration and use of the prayer room] could give rise to an establishment clause violation." Van Zandt v. Thompson, 839 F.2d 1215 (7th Cir. 1988)
