God is good to the US because Americans honor him, according to supreme court justice Antonin Scalia, who added on Saturday that he does not believe the country’s constitutional traditions enshrine the idea of religious neutrality.

Scalia was speaking Saturday at Archbishop Rummel high school in Metairie, Louisiana.

Scalia, who was appointed by president Ronald Reagan in 1986, has become known as one of the court’s most conservative members and the author of colorful and scathing opinions.

He told the audience at the Catholic school that there is “no place” in the country’s constitutional traditions for the idea that the state must be neutral between religion and its absence.

He also said there is “nothing wrong” with the idea of presidents and others invoking God in speeches. He said God has been good to America because Americans have honored him.

The justice courted controversy in December when he suggested that minority students could be better off at “lesser schools”.

“There are those who contend that it does not benefit African Americans to get them into the University of Texas where they do not do well, as opposed to having them go to a less-advanced school, a slower-track school, where they do well,” Scalia said during arguments in an affirmative action case.