Supreme Court Says Football Coach Can Pray on Field

We’re stopping abortion, we’re packing serious weapons, and we’re praying on fields.

We’re taking America back from the Jews.

It’s all happening – now!

AP:

The Supreme Court said Monday that a high school football coach who knelt and prayed on the field after games was protected by the Constitution, a decision that opponents said would open the door to “much more coercive prayer” in public schools.

The court ruled 6-3 for the coach with the conservative justices in the majority and the liberals in dissent. The case was the latest in a line of rulings for religious plaintiffs.

The case forced the justices to wrestle with how to balance the religious and free speech rights of teachers and coaches with the rights of students not to feel pressured into participating in religious practices. The liberal justices in the minority said there was evidence that Bremerton (Washington) High School Coach Joseph Kennedy’s prayers at the 50-yard-line had a coercive effect on students and allowed him to incorporate his “personal religious beliefs into a school event.”

Dissenting Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the decision “sets us further down a perilous path in forcing states to entangle themselves with religion.”

But the justices in the majority emphasized that the coach’s prayers came after the games were over and at a time when he wasn’t responsible for students and was free to do other things.

The coach and his attorneys at First Liberty Institute, a Christian legal group, were among those cheering the decision. Kennedy said in an interview that his first reaction was one of pure joy.

“Just like in all my football games I just threw my arms up, you know, ‘touchdown,’” he said. He described the seven years since the dispute began as tough on his family but “absolutely worth it.”

Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the majority in the ruling, declared, “The Constitution and the best of our traditions counsel mutual respect and tolerance, not censorship and suppression, for religious and nonreligious views alike.

Gorsuch noted that the coach “prayed during a period when school employees were free to speak with a friend, call for a reservation at a restaurant, check email, or attend to other personal matters” and “while his students were otherwise occupied.”

It would be wrong to treat everything public school teachers and coaches say and do as speech subject to government control, he wrote. If that were the case, “a school could fire a Muslim teacher for wearing a headscarf in the classroom or prohibit a Christian aide from praying quietly over her lunch in the cafeteria,” he wrote.

He closed by writing that: “Respect for religious expressions is indispensable to life in a free and diverse Republic—whether those expressions take place in a sanctuary or on a field, and whether they manifest through the spoken word or a bowed head.”

The decision continues a pattern in which the court has ruled in favor of religious plaintiffs. Last week the court ruled that Maine can’t exclude religious schools from a program that offers tuition aid for private education, a decision that could ease religious organizations’ access to taxpayer money.

In dissent, Sotomayor wrote Monday that players “recognize that gaining the coach’s approval may pay dividends small and large, from extra playing time to a stronger letter of recommendation to additional support in college athletic recruiting.” And she said “some students reported joining Kennedy’s prayer because they felt social pressure to follow their coach and teammates.”

Sotomayor was joined in her dissent by Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan.

Oh, you mean Jews hate Jesus?

Imagine my shock!

The district hired a Jew group to cancel love for our Lord and Savior, Jesus.

In a statement, the Bremerton School District and its attorneys at Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, said the decision undermines the separation required by the Constitution. The school district said in a statement that it had “followed the law and acted to protect the religious freedom of all students and their families.”

Rachel Laser, the head of Americans United, said the decision “opens the door to much more coercive prayer in our public schools” and undermines the religious freedom of students.

The school district’s attorney, Richard Katskee, said it is studying the decision and considering its next steps.

Who even actually cares if the guy wants to pray? How is that a threat to anyone?

Everyone knows the Constitution doesn’t ban prayer, and the whole “separation of church and state” was just about not having a state church, because by that time there were all of these different sects of Protestantism and they didn’t want one of them trying to take over the government. That’s all. It had nothing to do with telling people they weren’t allowed to pray – that is insane.