Kennedy, who describes himself as a devout Christian, had been praying at midfield for seven years when the controversy erupted in 2015. The case doesn’t directly challenge that precedent. The Supreme Court ruled in 1962 that the Constitution forbids teacher-led prayer in public schools.
“That’s what makes this case so urgent - a loss would dangerously erode church-state separation, a core principle of our democracy.”
“The law is clear that teachers and coaches cannot lead public school students in prayer,” said Rachel Laser, president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which is representing the school district. Circuit Court of Appeals said the school district would have been violating the constitutional separation of church and state had it allowed the prayers to continue. In rejecting Kennedy’s First Amendment claims, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. The school eventually put Kennedy on paid administrative leave and then opted not to renew his contract as an assistant varsity coach at the end of the year. The district says it offered Kennedy alternative, less public places to say his post-game prayers.
Although that case centers on the Constitution’s free-speech guarantee, the designer says she has a religious objection to gay marriage.īremerton School District says that after officials asked Kennedy to stop praying alongside his players, he made a series of media appearances that turned his post-game prayers into a firestorm as students and community members rushed the field to join him. In its next term, the court will hear an appeal from a website designer who says she shouldn’t be forced under a Colorado anti-discrimination law to create pages for same-sex weddings. The justices are also considering strengthening the rights of parents to use public funds to send their children to religious schools, and the court is weighing whether a Christian group should have been allowed to fly its flag over Boston’s City Hall, like other organizations. The Supreme Court has already ruled this year that death-row inmates can have spiritual advisers play an active role in the execution chamber.
The Biden administration isn’t taking a position. Bremerton has backing from 13 states, the District of Columbia and 11 federal lawmakers. Kennedy has the support of 27 states, five former Republican attorneys general and more than 70 members of Congress.
The case has drawn a blizzard of filings from interested outsiders, including former professional football players on both sides of the case. “It is a case about protecting all individuals’ right to speak freely - and to pray - in the public square,” said Rick Garnett, a Notre Dame Law School professor who contributed to a brief in support of Kennedy. But the coach says the district violated his constitutional rights by punishing what he says was private religious expression.
The case, the fourth religious-rights argument of the Supreme Court’s term, gives the court’s conservative majority a fresh chance to relax the separation of church and state.īremerton School District says Kennedy’s prayers were becoming a community spectacle and leaving players feeling pressured to join. The justices on Monday are set to hear arguments from Joseph Kennedy, who lost his job at a public high school outside Seattle after repeatedly taking a knee alongside his players on the 50-yard line after games. Supreme Court that has been on a drive to bolster religious rights. (Bloomberg) - A praying football coach is poised to become the latest symbol for a U.S.