(FiveNation.com)- The US Supreme Court decided in Coach Kennedy’s favor in a ruling released Monday morning.
The Bremerton School District fired Joseph Kennedy when he knelt at midfield after games to say a silent, private prayer, and the Thomas Court ruled for the plaintiff in a 6-3 decision.
For silently kneeling on the 50-yard line following football games, Coach Kennedy was dismissed in 2015. Kennedy claims that after the game, the school told him, “You can choose between your religion and your job,” and subsequently dismissed him because of his continuing quiet prayer.
The matter was mishandled by the extreme-left Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor, who wrongly stated the coach was “praying at the center of a school function.”
Coach Kennedy prayed after the games rather than disturbing the school function.
Coach Kennedy, according to Sotomayor, “is not entitled to any First Amendment rights.”
Sotomayor, Breyer, and Kagan, the three liberal justices, dissented. Coach Kennedy’s actions were mischaracterized in the opening line of Justice Sotomayor’s opinion: “This case is about whether a public school must let a school administrator kneel, bend his head, and say a prayer at the heart of a school event.”
Sotomayor misunderstands the facts of this case since prayer was never “at the core of a school function,” as she claims. After the school event, Coach Kennedy prayed. Poor writing exposes poor reasoning, and the dissent can never overcome this mistake.
Sotomayor, however, just reiterates the errors, claiming that Coach Kennedy’s actions caused “serious interruption to school functions.” How is that possible if the “school function” has already ended when the prayer is said? Sotomayor uses the general public’s response to the prayer following the “school incident,” noting that people flocked to the field to participate in the silent prayer. The school district “got calls from Satanists who wanted to hold ceremonies on the field after football games if others were permitted to,” the author adds.
In other words, because of how the public has responded to a First Amendment privilege, the liberal judges would restrict its lawful use. The Establishment Clause does not, however, encompass anything akin to a “modified heckler’s veto,” in which “religious conduct can be forbidden” based on “perceptions” or “discomfort,” as Justice Gorsuch made clear.
A “strong case” was made by Justices Sotomayor, Breyer, and Kagan that Coach Kennedy’s prayer “was speech in his official position as an employee that is not entitled to any First Amendment protections at all,” taking the situation even further. These Justices declare their opposition to free speech and the practice of religion, their disdain for First Amendment safeguards, and their differential treatment of secular and religious speech.
Thank your lucky stars that Sotomayor doesn’t speak for the majority.
