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Supreme Court Ignores Facts in School Prayer Case
The Supreme Court Monday issued its ruling in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District. The case concerned a high school football coach, Joseph Kennedy, who was leading students in prayer at midfield after football games. Lower courts upheld the school district's decision to put Kennedy on paid administrative lead for illegal promotion of religious activities at an official school event, a violation of the First Amendment's establishment clause. The Supremes overturned those decisions, though, ruling that it was a legitimate, private expression of personal faith protected by the First Amendment.
One of the issues on which this case (or cases like it) turns is coercion. Yes, the prayer is nominally voluntary in that students are invited to join; but when it's a school authority figure who's leading it, there is enormous pressure on students to go along. The coach is the boss of who gets to play, in which position, and for how long. He's also a role model for the students. A student who objects to the group prayer— perhaps because he practices a different faith or perhaps is not religious— may find himself denied opportunities to play and ostracized by fellow students who support the coach.
Some cases about prayer in school have so-called gray areas. This case is not one of them. What happened here was, or should have been, black-and-white.
So, how did the Supremes decide 6-3 to ignore the obvious conclusion in this case? Well, they simply ignored the facts of the case. They. Ignored. Facts.
To underscore this point, Justice Sotomayor included pictures in her dissent. Pictures of large, loud scrums of people— not just team members but players on the opposing team and fans from the stands including local politicians— flocking onto the field to join the coach's prayers. Justice Gorsuch's majority opinion characterizing the prayers as "private" and "quiet" is simply dishonest.
One of the issues on which this case (or cases like it) turns is coercion. Yes, the prayer is nominally voluntary in that students are invited to join; but when it's a school authority figure who's leading it, there is enormous pressure on students to go along. The coach is the boss of who gets to play, in which position, and for how long. He's also a role model for the students. A student who objects to the group prayer— perhaps because he practices a different faith or perhaps is not religious— may find himself denied opportunities to play and ostracized by fellow students who support the coach.
Some cases about prayer in school have so-called gray areas. This case is not one of them. What happened here was, or should have been, black-and-white.
So, how did the Supremes decide 6-3 to ignore the obvious conclusion in this case? Well, they simply ignored the facts of the case. They. Ignored. Facts.
To underscore this point, Justice Sotomayor included pictures in her dissent. Pictures of large, loud scrums of people— not just team members but players on the opposing team and fans from the stands including local politicians— flocking onto the field to join the coach's prayers. Justice Gorsuch's majority opinion characterizing the prayers as "private" and "quiet" is simply dishonest.