Those supporting the school district say that Kennedy has radically recast the events that led to his dismissal and that his actions during the 2015 football season were hardly private acts of faith. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan said that was the effect. But dissenting liberal Justices Stephen G. His opinion did not specifically overrule the test that grew out of the court’s decision in Lemon v. Gorsuch said lower courts should no longer follow the “Lemon test” criticized by religious conservatives, which called on judges to decide whether the government’s action might look to a reasonable observer as government endorsement of religion. Robert Barnes, WaPo (“ Supreme Court rules for high school football coach who prayed at midfield“) adds: Instead, he sued the school district, contending it had violated his right to free speech and the free exercise of religion. Kennedy did not apply for a new contract the following year. Near the end of the season, after Kennedy repeatedly refused to stop his public praying, the superintendent placed Kennedy on paid administrative leave. The school continued to tell Kennedy and his lawyers that it wanted to accommodate his wish to pray, but it wanted a less public demonstration of faith because it said the post game prayers would be seen as the school endorsing religion. It was, recalled the school principal, “a zoo.” There were Satan worshippers there, too, from Seattle. Kennedy, surrounded by TV cameras and some players, knelt to pray on the field while a state legislator placed his hand on Kennedy’s shoulder in support. “I fought and defended the Constitution and the thought of leaving the field of battle where the guys just played and having to go and hide my faith because it was uncomfortable to somebody, that’s just not America,” he said.īy the time of the homecoming game, Kennedy’s media appearances had made him something of a celebrity, and things in Bremerton had gotten so tense that despite extra police at the game, the mainly pro-prayer crowd mobbed the field, knocking over some of the band members and cheerleaders. The case began in 2015 when school administrators in Bremerton, Wash., instructed Kennedy to stop his praying on the field at the end of the game. The background makes it rather clear that this was more than just a simple prayer it was clearly performative: And she said “schools face a higher risk of unconstitutionally ‘coerc … support or participat in religion or its exercise’ than other government entities.” She pointed to the fact that the coach conducted a media blitz leading ultimately to the field being stormed and students being knocked down. Writing for the three liberals, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said that Kennedy’s prayer was neither private speech, nor benign. The three dissenters said that account of the facts blinkered reality. Kennedy is entitled to summary judgment on his religious exercise and free speech claims,” Gorsuch wrote. The Constitution neither mandates nor tolerates that kind of discrimination. Here, a government entity sought to punish an individual for engaging in a personal religious observance, based on a mistaken view that it has a duty to suppress religious observances even as it allows comparable secular speech. “Respect for religious expressions is indispensable to life in a free and diverse Republic. Without evidence that students had been coerced, the majority said, barring coach Joseph Kennedy from praying on the 50-yard line at the end of each game was a form of hostility to religion, in violation of the Constitution. Writing for the court majority, Justice Neil Gorsuch said that the school relied exclusively and improperly on concerns that the prayers would be viewed as a religious endorsement by the school. The decision was based largely on the lower courts’ finding that that the school told the coach to stop his midfield praying because it would be perceived as a school endorsement of religion. The 6-to-3 decision was the latest example of the court’s conservative supermajority requiring more accommodation for religion in public schools and less separation between church and state. Supreme Court on Monday sided with a high school football coach who claimed the right to pray on the 50-yard line after each game, joined by those players who wanted to participate. Nina Totenberg, NPR (“ Supreme Court backs a high school coach’s right to pray on the 50-yard line“):
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |