11/20/2023 0 Comments Scotus prayer decision![]() The school district first learned about Kennedy’s behavior in September of 2015, when an opposing coach spoke to the high school principal about it. One parent eventually complained to the school district that his son “felt compelled to participate,” despite the fact that he is an atheist, because the student feared “ he wouldn’t get to play as much if he didn’t participate.” And, while there’s no evidence that he ever ordered a student to kneel with him when he performed a religious ceremony on the 50-yard line, he did not discourage students from joining him, either, and a majority of the students on his team eventually did so.Īt least some students felt pressured to participate in these prayer sessions, even though they did not share Kennedy’s religious beliefs. Coach Kennedy turned his public school’s football games into a culture-war battlefieldĪs mentioned above, Kennedy spent much of his coaching career behaving like a preacher, holding public prayer sessions for students - many of whom Kennedy wielded authority over. There is a very real risk, in other words, that the Court could use this case to upend 60 years of established law. ![]() The Court has only grown more conservative since then, and it has treated “religious liberty” cases brought by conservative Christian litigants as its highest priority since Republicans gained a supermajority on the Court in 2020. ![]() Three years ago, during an earlier phase of the Kennedy litigation, a total of four justices joined an opinion by Justice Samuel Alito, which suggested that the school district violated Kennedy’s constitutional rights by denying him the free speech right to pray while at work. Or, at least, it is well established for now that school officials cannot do this. It is well established that school officials cannot use their official government position to pressure students into religious exercise. And he appears to have actively stoked religious divisions. His actions pressured students into joining him in a religious activity. He endorsed a religious viewpoint while acting as a representative of the school district. But Kennedy’s actions violate any of these competing legal tests. The endorsement test, for example, disfavors many governmental displays of religious symbols that are permitted under the coercion test. There are important differences among these frameworks. In a 2006 opinion, Justice Stephen Breyer appeared to propose a third framework, arguing that the establishment clause of the First Amendment must be interpreted to prevent “ divisiveness based upon religion that promotes social conflict.” Weisman (1992), moreover, suggests that school-sponsored religious activities are inherently coercive - both because of the power school officials wield over students, and because of the peer pressure facing young people who visibly refuse to participate. Under the latter framework, endorsements are sometimes permitted, but not if they coerce individuals into a religious exercise. Under the first framework, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote in 1984, government actions that endorse a particular religion or religious belief are disfavored because such endorsements send “ a message to nonadherents that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community, and an accompanying message to adherents that they are insiders, favored members of the political community.” Legal scholars refer to these competing frameworks by names such as the “ endorsement test” or the “ coercion test.” The Supreme Court’s decisions interpreting the First Amendment ban on “ an establishment of religion” have, at times, relied on different frameworks to determine if this ban is violated. The school initially tried to work with Kennedy to find ways to accommodate his religious convictions, but eventually placed him on leave after he stopped cooperating - and after one of his prayer sessions inspired a crowd of people to rush the field, knocking over members of the marching band and potentially endangering students. Initially, he did this alone, but after a few games students started to join him - until eventually a majority of his players joined him as well. After each game, while players and spectators were still present, Kennedy would walk out to the 50-yard line, kneel, and pray. Kennedy also engaged in other overt performances of his religion while he was coaching public school students. In this picture, from the school district’s Supreme Court brief, coach Joseph Kennedy holds one of his prayer sessions for public school students.
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