John R. Houk, Blog Editor
June 27, 2022
Coach [Praying] Joe
Kennedy. (Image
credit: First Liberty Institute) – Photo via
CBN News
In recent SCOTUS rulings, Trump appointed Justices added
Conservative Judicial clout enabling the Supreme Court to protect
the 2nd Amendment in NY State and help protect the lives
to unborn persons by striking
down Roe v. Wade.
I discovered today that Leftist-haters of Religious Liberty on
taxpayer supported property took another SCOTUS smackdown reversing 9th
Appellate Courts approval of Bremerton High School persecution of then Asst.
Football Coach Joe Kennedy for praying on the Football Field after games. I
posted on Bremerton
High School’s religious persecution of Coach Kennedy before he was discharged
for his acts of faith way back in 2015.
Below you can read a couple of reports on Joe Kennedy’s
Religious Liberty being upheld first from The
Epoch Times and then from The
Conservative Treehouse (or is it The Last Refuge, I
never get that straight). Honorable mention goes to CBN
News.
JRH 6/27/22
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Supreme Court Rules in Favor of High School Football
Coach Fired for Post-Game Prayers
Decision overturns the oft-reversed 9th Circuit Court of
Appeals
People walk past the
Supreme Court building during a rainstorm in Washington on June 23, 2022. (Anna
Moneymaker/Getty Images)
June 27, 2022 Updated: June 27, 2022
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on June 27 that a school
district in Washington
state violated First Amendment religious
freedom protections when it fired high school football coach
Joseph Kennedy for leading personal prayers at the 50-yard line after games.
The decision is regarded as a victory for religious freedom.
In the case, the high court held that the Free Exercise and
Free Speech Clauses of the First Amendment protect an individual engaging in a
personal religious observance from government reprisal.
The court found that the U.S. Constitution neither requires
nor allows governments to suppress such religious expression.
Coach Joseph “Joe” Kennedy, who no longer works for the
taxpayer-funded Bremerton School District in Washington state, claimed his
rights were violated when the district forbade him from praying in view of the
public after games.
The school district argued that when Kennedy prayed midfield
after games, he was viewed by onlookers as a coach who was serving as a mentor
and role model.
In this theory of the case, Kennedy was acting as a
government employee at that moment, which would mean that he was engaging in
speech that constituted government speech that isn’t protected by the First
Amendment.
But the majority of Supreme Court justices disagreed with
the school district in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (court file
21-418), an appeal from the frequently overturned U.S. Court of Appeals for the
9th Circuit.
Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion (pdf) for the court. All six conservative justices,
including Gorsuch, ruled in favor of Kennedy; all three liberal justices ruled
against him. Oral argument was heard April 25.
Gorsuch noted that Kennedy lost his job as a high school
football coach in the Bremerton School District “because he knelt at midfield
after games to offer a quiet prayer of thanks” 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.”
In other words, Kennedy offered “his prayers quietly while
his students were otherwise occupied.”
The school district disciplined him because it believed
anything less might lead a reasonable observer to mistakenly conclude that it
endorsed Kennedy’s religious beliefs, Gorsuch wrote.
The district was wrong to do so, the justice added.
“The Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses of the First
Amendment protect expressions like Mr. Kennedy’s. Nor does a proper
understanding of the Amendment’s Establishment Clause require the government to
single out private religious speech for special disfavor.
“The Constitution and the best of our traditions counsel
mutual respect and tolerance, not censorship and suppression, for religious and
nonreligious views alike,” Gorsuch wrote.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor filed a dissenting opinion, which
was joined by Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan. The dissent
characterizes Kennedy as a wrongdoer.
“This case is about whether a public school must permit a
school official to kneel, bow his head, and say a prayer at the center of a
school event,” Sotomayor wrote. “The Constitution does not authorize, let alone
require, public schools to embrace this conduct.”
The Supreme Court is wrong to ignore “the severe disruption
to school events caused by Kennedy’s conduct, viewing it as irrelevant because
the Bremerton School District … stated that it was suspending Kennedy to avoid
it being viewed as endorsing religion.”
Kennedy was responsible for “repeated disruptions of school
programming and violations of school policy regarding public access to the
field as grounds for suspending him.”
“This decision does a disservice to schools and the young
citizens they serve, as well as to our nation’s longstanding commitment to the
separation of church and state.”
The Supreme Court issued three opinions in total in already
argued cases on June 27.
The court is trying to dispose of a backlog of cases before
it leaves for summer recess. With the release of the three opinions, four
remain to be released in the court’s current term.
When it wraps up, Justice Breyer is expected to formally
leave the court and be replaced by Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden’s
nominee who was narrowly confirmed by the U.S. Senate on April 7.
On June 27, the court announced it will next issue opinions
on June 29.
This is a developing story. This article will be updated.
Matthew Vadum
is an award-winning investigative journalist and a recognized expert in
left-wing activism.
Copyright © 2000 – 2022 The Epoch Times
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Freedom Wins, Supreme Court Sides with High School Coach
Fired for Praying on Field After Games
By Sundance
June 27, 2022
The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Joseph Kennedy [Full Ruling Here] saying the Bremerton school
district in Washington state was wrong to fire him for praying after football
games with players of both teams. By a vote of 6-3, the justices ruled that
Coach Joseph Kennedy’s conduct was protected by the First Amendment.
In 2015, Kennedy had been a part-time football coach at
Bremerton High School for seven years. Coach Kennedy would pray at midfield
after each game, alone, with players and with players of the opposing team
joining him. When the school district learned about Kennedy’s prayers, they
told him to stop. Kennedy refused, and despite wide support from parents and
the community the district fired him.
Joseph-Kennedy-Washington-State-Prayer-in-School
Justice Neil Gorsuch delivered the court’s opinion and was joined in full by
Chief Justice John Roberts, Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Amy Coney
Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh. Gorsuch explained that the government’s only real
justification for its decision to fire Kennedy “rested on a mistaken view that
it had a duty to ferret out and suppress religious observances even as it
allows comparable secular speech. The Constitution,” Gorsuch concluded,
“neither mandates nor tolerates that kind of discrimination.”
(Via Christian Post) […] “Kennedy 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.
He offered his prayers quietly while his students were otherwise occupied.
Still, the Bremerton School District disciplined him anyway,” wrote Gorsuch.
“Both the Free Exercise and Free
Speech Clauses of the First Amendment protect expressions like Mr. Kennedy’s …
The Constitution and the best of our traditions counsel mutual respect and
tolerance, not censorship and suppression, for religious and nonreligious views
alike.”
In response to today’s opinion,
Kennedy said, “This is just so awesome. All I’ve ever wanted was to be back on
the field with my guys. I am incredibly grateful to the Supreme Court, my
fantastic legal team, and everyone who has supported us. I thank God for
answering our prayers and sustaining my family through this long battle.”
Kelly Shackelford, president,
CEO and chief counsel for First Liberty, a religious liberty law firm based in
Plano, Texas, which represented Kennedy, hailed the court’s decision as a
“tremendous victory for Coach Kennedy and religious liberty for all Americans.”
(more)
“For where two or three
gather in my name, there am I with them.”
~ Matthew 18:20
“Will you pray with me?” or “will you allow me to pray with
you?” These are examples of the strongest proactive affirmations of
fellowship, love and faith you can bring to any encounter. Prayer works. However,
it is not enough to simply to stop and pray, we should immediately affirm the
intent of the moment. We should pause, gather or assemble, and pray in His
name. That is where the Spirit of Jesus will manifest. Seek to gather with
others in the name of Jesus and experience His presence in the moments of life.
Fellowship is important. There are many biblical commands
concerning “one another” because God does not want us to be alone. Isolation
and/or aloneness is not living, it can be painful and harmful to our spirit. Burdens
weight most when carried alone. Fellowship is the connective tissue that brings
life to our journey. When you feel hardship, pray. When you see hardship, pray.
When you find hardship in another, pray.
There is no level of experience needed for prayer, nor is
there an apprenticeship for faith. While living, pay attention. When you see a
burden reach out, feel, connect, and begin… “Dear God,”….. the rest will
follow.
© 2022 The Conservative Treehouse
