For decades, the court has wisely barred officials’ public prayers at school events. It should have ruled against Coach Joe Kennedy’s mid-field prayers, too, writes the Editorial Board.
After losing his coaching job for refusing to stop kneeling in prayer with players and spectators on the field immediately after football games, Joe Kennedy took his arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, April 25, 2022, saying the Bremerton School District violated his First Amendment rights by refusing to let him continue praying at midfield after games.For at least six decades, the U.S.
But these prayers were anything but private, or quiet. They took place on the 50-yard line. Despite being voluntary, they were not free of the sort of religious coercion the Constitution is supposed to forbid. Photos of the mid-field prayers show scores of students and others joining the coach, some perhaps feeling obligated to do so.
The courts have long insisted that the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment meant that officials could not lead prayers when a reasonable person would see them as a form of endorsement of one religion over another, or even of faith itself. Students were free to initiate their own spontaneous prayers, so long as they were not part of an official program or ceremony.
When it comes to religion, the First Amendment is full of contradictions. On the one hand, it forbids any government action that could be seen as establishing a preferred religion; on the other hand, it guarantees individuals the right to free exercise of their religion. It also guarantees individuals’ freedom of speech.
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