Public School Employees Should Not Elevate Any Faith Over Another
“No student should ever be made to feel excluded because they don’t share the religious beliefs of their coaches, teachers or fellow students,” said Celina Moreno, J.D., IDRA President and CEO. “Yesterday’s decision makes it harder for schools to safeguard students’ rights to free speech and religious expression and to ensure no student is pressured to conform to religious norms inconsistent with their personal beliefs.”
Significantly, the undisputed record showed that Kennedy:
- had a longstanding practice of conducting demonstrative prayers on the 50-yard line;
- consistently invited other students and coaches to join his prayers;
- for years prior to the lawsuit led student-athletes in “motivational” prayers as part of his coaching; and
- went on a media tour, presenting himself as a coach who “made a commitment with God” to several local and national news outlets.
This is the second opinion this term where the U.S. Supreme Court has brazenly bulldozed foundational legal principles protecting the civil rights and religious freedom of all children, educators and communities. Read together with Carson v. Makin issued last week, Kennedy sets a dangerous precedent further eroding the principle of separation of church and state in public schools. Compounding the harmful impacts of the decision, the Supreme Court in Kennedy also overruled Lemon v. Kurtzman, a 1971 precedent that helped prevent the entanglement of government and religion.
Writing for the dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor correctly concluded: “Today’s decision is particularly misguided because it elevates the religious rights of a school official, who voluntarily accepted public employment and the limits that public employment entails, over those of his students, who are required to attend school and who this Court has long recognized are particularly vulnerable and deserving of protection.”