Supreme Court Sides With Coach Over Prayers on 50-Yard Line

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: New York Times

Supreme Court Sides With Coach Over Prayers on 50-Yard Line

Joseph Kennedy, a former high school football coach in Bremerton, Wash., had a constitutional right to pray on the field after his team’s games, the justices ruled.

By Adam Liptak
June 27, 2022, 10:04 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that a high school football coach had a constitutional right to pray at the 50-yard line after his team’s games.

The vote was 6 to 3, with the court’s three liberal members in dissent.

The case pitted the rights of government workers to free speech and the free exercise of their faith against the Constitution’s prohibition of government endorsement of religion and the ability of public employers to regulate speech in the workplace. The decision was in tension with decades of Supreme Court precedents that forbade pressuring students to participate in religious activities.

The case concerned Joseph Kennedy, an assistant coach at a public high school in Bremerton, Wash., near Seattle. For eight years, Mr. Kennedy routinely offered prayers after games, with students often joining him. He also led and participated in prayers in the locker room, a practice he later abandoned and did not defend in the Supreme Court.

{snip}

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/27/us/politics/supreme-court-coach-prayers.html

---

I don't subscribe to the NYT, so I can't give you a link that allows you free access to the article.

-- -- -- -- -- --

SCOTUSblog:

We have the first opinion, and it is Kennedy v. Bremerton School District.

Sotomayor dissents, joined by Breyer and Kagan.
ShareReplies0Likes0
Amy Howe

a few seconds ago
It is by Justice Gorsuch, and the vote is 6-3.
ShareReplies0Likes0
Amy Howe

a few seconds ago
Here is the link: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21-418_i425.pdf

The Court holds that both the free exercise and free speech clauses protect Kennedy's right to pray at midfield following high school football games.

https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/06/announcement-of-orders-and-opinions-for-monday-june-27/

-- -- -- -- -- --

The Supreme Court's first decision of the day is Kennedy v. Bremerton. In a 6-3 opinion by Gorsuch, the court holds that public school officials have a constitutional right to pray publicly, and lead students in prayer, during school events. https://supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21-418_i425.pdf

The Supreme Court formally overrules the Lemon test and the endorsement test, substantially cutting back the Establishment Clause's separation of church and state. This is another maximalist decision. https://supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21-418_i425.pdf

Link to tweet

[turbinetree]

2. Why do I have to be subject to someone praying......another dismantling of the 1st amendment...

well will not being going to "any" games, I even switch the channel during the national anthem, then come back to watch ...

[Walleye]

4. How long before a coach has to promise to pray on the field before he can get his job?

And pray to Jesus, of course

[NullTuples]

45. And kids have to promise to pray to get on the team, or field time?

I can guarantee, both are already happening just not overtly. But that doesn't make the coercion any less real.

[Walleye]

53. Yes it's the kids I'm worried about are Jewish kids are gonna pray to Jesus to play football?

When I was in first grade we were still reading the Bible and praying in school. One of my best friends was Jewish I remember her covering her ears during the Lord’s prayer. I have never forgotten that and the embarrassment it causes. School is difficult enough for chrissakes

[jimfields33]

23. It's completely after the game where I guess he stood and players could join

This wasn’t during the game. It was an empty stadium. This one is a not sure for me.

[shrike3]

24. I agree.

[happy feet]

36. He could have prayed in private

in his car or off the field. He went to his car, then decided 'God" wanted him to return to the playing field to pray in public. The whole point of praying after the game was to exhibit his 'religiousness' in public in a coercive fashion that intimidated some players to join him or be known as not joining him in prayer. He chose to go to the middle of the football field to do this.

All one has to do is to imagine a Muslim football coach doing this and well.............................you know the rest.

[Roy Rolling]

39. I'm okay with a Muslim coach doing this

A personal act on the coach’s own time isn’t forbidden by Constitutional law.

[NullTuples]

48. This wasn't on his own time, he was still acting as coach, ie gov't employee

[former9thward]

78. He was not acting as "coach"

He did not ask the players to join. He initially did it by himself.

[NullTuples]

81. He was still wearing his coach clothes, on the coaching field, right after a game he'd coached.

He was there as part of his school employment, as coach. He was out on the field in his role as coach.

That is acting as coach.

Any players who were not Christian I guarantee felt pressure to "do the right thing" and perform Christianity for him.

These are questions of coercion, and abuse of power as much as anything else.

[former9thward]

84. No, this was after the game.

The school admitted in court employees were on their personal time at that point. No players were asked to join him. On the three occasions the school cited for firing him no players joined him for the prayers.

[NullTuples]

85. Was he there for the game? Was he still dressed as coach? Was he on "his" field?

Did people walk up and call him "coach"?
Did people see him as being there as the coach?

[former9thward]

89. The school admitted in court all employees were on personal time after the game.

Are you saying he can't go to church because people will call him coach?

[NullTuples]

91. No, I'm saying many Christians abuse their implied power

You can argue the semantics and technicalities all you want; I'm not going to any more. Thanks for the discussion, I'm out.

[Captain Zero]

95. Did he still have his whistle on?

I bet he did.

[NullTuples]

96. I think that's a given.

[jimfields33]

40. Rights are rights. I will fight for rights of those being taken away.

That’s what the Democratic Party does. Doesn’t matter a lick if we agree or not. This person was fired and sued. He won his case. End it f story.

[NullTuples]

65. Except he won his case in the most corrupt court of my lifetime. That is not justice.

[jimfields33]

73. Doesn't change the reality.

[NullTuples]

82. What about the rights of the non-Christian students/players to not have state imposed religion?

They know they'd better get out there and "do the right thing" by performing Christianity for him.

What about their rights?

[Marthe48]

92. Agree

I attened a Zoom exercise class led by a friend of mine. Zoom becauseof covid, attended because I couldn't come up with a graceful excuse not to attend from home. Several times over the last year one or more of the people who attended in person started a prayer session the end of class. The Zoom connection ended in May and I'm not going to go to the gym for the classes. One because of Covid and 2 because of the prayers.

[Diamond_Dog]

60. But he was wearing his coach uniform so therefore was representing the school.

Plus he did it immediately after the game in the most visible place possible.

Have yer prayer meetings in the locker room if you wanna pray. Nobody is stopping him from praying. H just wants to be in everyone’s face about it.

[jimfields33]

64. Actually I'd be against it in the locker room

I like it out in the open. Much better.

[sl8]

72. Where did you see that the stadium was empty?

The school specifically told him that he could pray after the stadium was emptied, but he declined.

From J Sotomayor's dissent:

[...]

The court noted that he had in fact refused “an accommodation
permitting him to pray . . . after the stadium had emptied,”
“indicat[ing] that it is essential that his speech be delivered
in the presence of students and spectators.”

[...]

They witnessed members of the public and state representatives going onto the field to support Kennedy’s cause and pray with him. Kennedy did nothing to stop this unauthorized access to the field, a clear dereliction of his duties. The BHS players in fact joined the crowd around Kennedy after he stood up from praying at the last game. That BHS students did not join Kennedy in these last three specific prayers did not make those events compliant with the Establishment Clause. The coercion to do so was evident. Kennedy himself apparently anticipated that his continued prayer practice would draw student participation, requesting that the District agree that it would not “interfere” with students joining him in the future.

[...]

[happy feet]

90. Exactly

He could have prayed in his car or anywhere other than the field. The Supreme Court is letting Christian religion inform their rulings. What happened to separation of church and state? Because you believe abortion is immoral doesn’t give your religion belief the right to overturn my non-religious belief at a minimum.
Now on speedway to conservative Christian rule.

[Walleye]

3. Keep taking our rights, you guys, the backlash is going to be tremendous

[OnlinePoker]

37. How is it taking your rights if he wants to pray in an empty stadium? n/t

[Walleye]

46. Who is paying for his stadium? Doesn't he have a church he can pray in?

Why should the atheists in that school be embarrassed by not participating

[NullTuples]

51. Check the photos; he was surrounded by all the players & the stands still had people in them.

This was very much still in his role as "coach", ie gov't employee.

[Diamond_Dog]

70. As I understand it

He did it immediately after a game, like when the game clock ran out. when the stands were just starting to empty out and players were still on the sidelines.

[jimfields33]

41. Actually we gave this person his rights.

[Walleye]

47. Can pray anywhere anytime he wants. But not on my dime

[jimfields33]

50. Perfect. That's what he did.

I think it will workout.

[Walleye]

55. Teachers leading prayer in public schools is a bad thing

[jimfields33]

58. True. Thankfully this isn't that.

[Walleye]

59. Do you think they're gonna be happy with just this?

They will keep pushing until they have forced their religion back into schools and on all of the kids.

[jimfields33]

61. Only if lawsuits are submitted

Right now. It’s after school activities when most have gone home. What could happen hasn’t.

[Walleye]

63. My words, the religious right will continue to push

[jimfields33]

67. I'm sure they will. But let's deal with today.

Roe is a million times worse and that must be for congress’ focus for now.

[Walleye]

68. It all stems from the attitude that they have the right to push their religion on us

[appmanga]

5. The American Taliban...

...strikes again.

[bdamomma]

30. +100000

nt

[BumRushDaShow]

6. NYT Breaking

Supreme Court Sides With Coach Over Prayers on 50-Yard Line


By Adam Liptak
June 27, 2022, 10:04 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that a high school football coach had a constitutional right to pray at the 50-yard line after his team’s games. The vote was 6 to 3, with the court’s three liberal members in dissent. The case pitted the rights of government workers to free speech and the free exercise of their faith against the Constitution’s prohibition of government endorsement of religion and the ability of public employers to regulate speech in the workplace. The decision was in tension with decades of Supreme Court precedents that forbade pressuring students to participate in religious activities.

The case concerned Joseph Kennedy, an assistant coach at a public high school in Bremerton, Wash., near Seattle. For eight years, Mr. Kennedy routinely offered prayers after games, with students often joining him. He also led and participated in prayers in the locker room, a practice he later abandoned and did not defend in the Supreme Court. In 2015, after an opposing coach told the principal at Mr. Kennedy’s school that he thought it was “pretty cool” that Mr. Kennedy was allowed to pray on the field, the school board instructed Mr. Kennedy not to pray if it interfered with his duties or involved students. The two sides disagreed about whether Mr. Kennedy complied.

A school official recommended that the coach’s contract not be renewed for the 2016 season, and Mr. Kennedy did not reapply for the position. The two sides offered starkly different accounts of what had happened in Mr. Kennedy’s final months, complicating the Supreme Court’s task. Mr. Kennedy said he sought only to offer a brief, silent and solitary prayer little different from saying grace before a meal in the school cafeteria. The school board responded that the public nature of his prayers and his stature as a leader and role model meant that students felt forced to participate, whatever their religion and whether they wanted to or not.Over the last 60 years, the Supreme Court has rejected prayer in public schools, at least when it was officially required or part of a formal ceremony like a high school graduation.

As recently as 2000, the court ruled that organized prayers led by students at high school football games violated the First Amendment’s prohibition of government establishment of religion. “The delivery of a pregame prayer has the improper effect of coercing those present to participate in an act of religious worship,” Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority. Mr. Kennedy’s lawyers said those school prayer precedents were not relevant because they involved government speech. The core question in Mr. Kennedy’s case, they said, was whether government employees give up their own rights to free speech and the free exercise of religion at the workplace.

(snip)

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/27/us/politics/supreme-court-coach-prayers.html

[mahatmakanejeeves]

8. Thanks. I kept hitting refresh for Robert Barnes. Nothing at the time.

I'm adding this to my list of tweeters to watch:

https://twitter.com/adamliptak

We get a week off from employment reports.

And good morning.

[BumRushDaShow]

15. Top of the morning

and WaPo has their breaking about 5 minutes later.

And thanks for the heads-up about Friday. Was figuring that since it'll be July 1st (and then Monday is the holiday).

Supreme Court sides with ex-high school football coach let go after praying with players at midfield

By Robert Barnes
June 27, 2022 at 10:12 a.m. EDT


The Supreme Court on Monday ruled for a former high school football coach who lost his job after leading postgame prayers at midfield, in the court’s latest decision favoring the public exercise of faith over concerns about government endorsement of religion. Justice Neil M. Gorsuch wrote for fellow conservatives in the 6 to 3 decision, saying Joseph Kennedy’s prayers are protected by the Constitution’s guarantees of free speech and free religious exercise and the school district’s actions were not warranted under a concern of violating the separation of church and state.

“The Constitution and the best of our traditions counsel mutual respect and tolerance, not censorship and suppression, for religious and nonreligious views alike,” Gorsuch wrote. Liberal Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan dissented. The case raised questions about the ability of public employees to live out their faith and the government’s competing responsibility to protect schoolchildren from coercion and to remain neutral on the subject of religion.

As in many of the court’s recent cases, it called for interpretation of how the Constitution’s establishment clause, which forbids government endorsement of religion, interacts with its free speech and free exercise clauses, which prohibit government restraints on the private observance of religion.

The Roberts court has recently been overwhelmingly protective of religious rights, and advocates said the case was another opportunity to transform decades of Supreme Court jurisprudence that started 60 years ago with the admonition that government cannot organize and promote prayer in public schools.

(snip)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/27/supreme-court-praying-football-coach/

[mahatmakanejeeves]

17. This week's schedule of announcements:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/111693536

[BumRushDaShow]

19. Thanks!!

And here is an archive.org (non-paywall) version of the NYT article - https://web.archive.org/web/20220627141052/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/27/us/politics/supreme-court-coach-prayers.html

[multigraincracker]

7. Can a kid be in trouble for

covering ones ears and chanting La-la-la-la during the prayer?

[xocetaceans]

35. Basically, the student athlete better pray or they likely won't play. But that's up to the coach.

n/t

[eShirl]

9. bless our team, Satan

[Moostache]

10. Time for bowing to Mecca...

And Wiccan rituals
And goat sacrifices
And virgin offerings
And pasta meals
And rain dances

Open and constant warfare without relenting.

All religions or no religions. Period.

[intheflow]

21. Any game in any sport must provide a Maypole for games played on May 1st.

I like it!

[PatSeg]

27. My thoughts as well

Freedom for some should be freedom for all.

Meanwhile, anyone can "pray" anywhere at any time, but silently. Jesus had a pretty low regard for people who made a public display of their worship and called them hypocrites.

[Moostache]

38. Biblical Jesus would not recognize Republican Jesus

*except to condemn him for nearly everything GOP Jesus has been twisted into...

Religions carry no weight with me, I simply reject 1 more god than others are willing to, but the state sponsoring of a single faith tradition over others is inherently dangerous and will lead to horrifying results.

[PatSeg]

69. Yes, a terrible precedent

and another huge step backward for our country.

I have no problem with most of the alleged teachings of Jesus, but I have known so few Christians who lived by them. As Mahatma Gandhi said, "I like your Christ, but not your Christianity."

[Lonestarblue]

11. No surprise here. This ecclesiastical Court is removing the separation of church and state piece

by piece. Just like in Iran and Afghanistan, it is the Christian ayatollahs who are governing and making laws based on their personal religious beliefs. I guess they have forgotten the Biblical admonition in Matthew 6:6:

“But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

And Matthew 6:1:

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.”

[PatSeg]

29. Thank you

I just made a reference to Jesus's teachings about public prayer before I saw your comment. It is hard to find a self-described "Christian" who isn't a hypocrite. It is as if the New Testament doesn't even exist.

[The Grand Illuminist]

12. It boiled down to this....

Whether or not high school football games are considered school time.

[groundloop]

22. BUT.... Consider if a player chooses not to participate in the prayer.

I've no doubt that the radical right justices have said that any of the players on the team are free not to participate in the prayer. Think about this - Coach (who has total control over the team) calls the team together for a prayer and three players refuse to participate in the team prayer.

In a perfect world those three players would just go to the locker room, end of story. But in the real world the coach is going to be pissed that those three didn't join with the rest of the team in his prayer session and they'll have extra pressure put on them to participate next time or else face consequences (less playing time, punishment at practice, etc.). So in essence those three players are being coerced to participate in a prayer session while participating on a team which is part of a public school.

[The Grand Illuminist]

28. We'll get to that when it hits.

You are right though. But right now this rung only dealt with coach vs. school district.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

57. The prayer will be on the 50-yard line, not in the locker room.

How long will it be before (Christian) prayers are read over the PA system before the game?

[Walleye]

62. That is exactly right and everybody knows it

[bucolic_frolic]

13. I'll be praying too but they won't like what I'm praying /nt

[sinkingfeeling]

14. This surprises no one. And the EPA will be the next to go down in defeat to polluters.

[groundloop]

18. I can see it now...... pollution is speech

[bdamomma]

33. more pollution

to exacerbate more global climate disastrous changes.

[packman]

20. And the losing coach was burning a first-born child on a Satanic altar

under the goal posts - What fools these mortals be.,,, I love it when two coaches in their locker rooms pray for victory and God goes, "Nope , we got a bet on Bob's team"

[Aristus]

25. Jesus makes a compelling case for doing that someplace private, coach.

Anything else is religious grandstanding. Which Jesus cautioned against.

[James48]

26. This period will become known as "The Catholic Court."

Now that SIX Justices who are Catholic are on the Court- three Jewish Justices, and NO Protestants, we will find a lot more
right-wing Catholic-based rulings, I believe.

Pretty crazy times.

[LoisB]

31. Did Gorsuch not read his Bible?

Matthew 6:5-6
King James Version
5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

[Seeking Serenity]

93. Oh, just imagine if the Court had ruled against the coach and cited THAT as justification

The dissonance here would be ear-splitting.

It's kinda funny to think about really.

[LoisB]

97. It would have been a very interesting "discussion".

[twodogsbarking]

32. Fuck you asshole coach and justices too.

[samsingh]

34. i wonder how they will react when players from non-Christian religions begin to do the same

[jimfields33]

43. The field is huge. Why not?

I’m sure as long as nobody gets in each other’s way, all are free to pray anyway they desire.

[samsingh]

49. weren't the same republicans going nuts when people were kneeling for Black Lives Matter?

[jimfields33]

56. Yep. We supported it. We should be supporting this too.

[packman]

66. Foottball fields are on school grounds

Separation of church/state (Ha, ha) issue. If it was a public field, park, street corner - I'm OK with that, let him babble as much as he wants but keep it off school grounds. What is he a groomer?

[malthaussen]

42. I'll agree with that. What he doesn't have is the right to force the team to pray with him.

Since this appears to be an individual act, he hardly can be accused of that.

That said, there is a certain grey area here, as the coach is also the representative of the team and school, and so his actions might be legitimately construed as actions in his official capacity, and not as a private person. The school would be right, then, in cautioning him against such acts in future, but if this was a first offense, firing would be out of line. If, however, the coach was praying after being told not to, then the issue is no longer one of religious freedom, it is one of due subordination of an employee to his employers. Now, that opens up a nice little can o'worms. Can an employer legitimately deny an employee the right to exercise his religion? What if the employer is a State institution, such as a public school? Is the freedom to exercise a right identical with an endorsement of the exercise? Even if we stipulate that formally it is not, how will it be seen by witnesses? Some food for thought, here.

-- Mal

[AllyCat]

44. The continued slide to theocracy.

[Polybius]

52. Before I can form an opinion, I need one question answered

I know this was after the game and voluntary, but was he and his students still on the clock, or was it after school hours? If it was after than I agree with the decision.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

54. That depends on who you ask.

AnyAndAllThingsHat Retweeted

There’s a mile-wide gap between how the court’s conservatives describe what the coach in Bremerton was doing, and what he was actually doing.

http://supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf…

Link to tweet

[Bayard]

71. As Don Henley sings in, "Frail Grasp of the Big Picture,"

"And He shepherds His flock
We sing out and we praise His name
He supports us in war
He presides over football games"

More pressure on kids to conform, be assimilated into the zombie minority.

We were at a land auction last week, and the realtor led off with a long, rambling Jesus prayer. Maybe it was for the Amish who attended. I wanted to jump up, and scream--Hail, Satan!

[bluestarone]

74. Why do I disagree?

#1.This is a small thing that will LEAD to HUGE things, i'm thinking. #2 i STAND with the dissenters here! There IS a reason they dissented! 3# I hate religion of any kind in PUBLIC SCHOOLS!

[Duncan Grant]

75. Who needs these public displays of piety? It's rude.

Hegemony, conformity, power - I hate being in what should be secular space only to negotiate someone’s religious performance. It’s creepy and so very passive aggressive.

Take your well rehearsed incantations to whatever space they truly belong and leave the rest of us in peace.

[eppur_se_muova]

77. Matthew 6:5-7 Print up a bunch of these signs for his next game.

5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.

This must be the right wingers' least favorite passage in the whole Bible.

Matthew 6:1 is also appropriate.

[rsdsharp]

79. Oh, no. This doesn't violate the free exercise and establishment clauses.

Beer Bong Brett played high school football (he says). He knows that there are absolutely no repercussions if a player doesn’t do what a coach wants.

[usaf-vet]

80. Ok, all you legal eagles in DU. WILL THIS OPEN THE DOOR TO PRAYING IN CLASSROOMS?

The coffee clutch lawyer said it DID open up prayers in the classroom.

If so we are speeding downhill faster than I would have imagined.

So when are we going to stop saying as we are beaten? Whack ..... "thank you sir may I have another".

I am really sick of this shit!

[Deep State Witch]

83. I Look Forward

To a coach leading a prayer to Shango, Krishna, Hermes, or any other deity prior to a football game.

[pfitz59]

86. Gorsuch lies

Does this look like 'alone'? on his own time?

[Roy Rolling]

87. One thing for certain

Many people comment without reading the article. Facts are “common ground”, ignore them at your own peril. Read twice, comment once. Not comment twice, then read the article.

[Martin68]

88. The best way to counter this is to become a satanist and insist on equal treatment.

[Captain Zero]

94. My observation: If your coach spends a lot of time praying, his coaching may be shit

For the teams I'm a fan of, the praying coaches must not be praying for wins.

I wish my teams would quit hiring them, just hire a young coach who knows the latest about how the game is played.

I'll bet the guy got fired because he wasn't winning.
Maybe he was praying he could keep his job.