Supreme Court to hear case of high school football coach who lost job after onfield prayers

essentialsaltes

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The Supreme Court said Friday it will take up the case of a high school football coach who lost his job after a contentious battle with the school district over his postgame midfield prayers.

The court’s new conservative majority has been protective of individual religious rights, and it was not a surprise it took the case of Joseph Kennedy’s legal fight with the Bremerton, Wash., school district, which began in 2015.

He has lost twice before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, although the case split the judges.

“No teacher or coach should lose their job for simply expressing their faith while in public,” said Kelly Shackelford, president and chief executive of First Liberty.

“This case is not about a school employee praying silently during a private religious devotion,” [Americans United] said in a statement. “Rather, this case is about protecting impressionable students who felt pressured by their coach to participate repeatedly in public prayer, and a public school district that did right by its students and families.”
 

Hank77

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A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit had previously ruled against Kennedy in 2017.

In 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal in the case, sending the case back to the lower court level, with U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Leighton ruling against Kennedy in 2020.

Last March, the Ninth Circuit had again ruled against him.
....
“At that time, four justices (Justice Alito joined by Justices Thomas, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh) attached a statement signaling that the court would be open to hearing the case at a future time, saying in part, ‘The Ninth Circuit’s understanding of the free speech rights of public school teachers is troubling and may justify review in the future,’” First Liberty explained.

Supreme Court to hear case of Christian football coach fired for praying on field after games

When I read about this the first comparison that came to mind was if a teacher prays a blessing over their meal in the cafeteria could they be fired? But now I'm not sure that this is about individual freedom to pray publically as it is about undue influence on student players. More information is needed by me. Arguments in this case probably won't be heard for a few mths.
 
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Hans Blaster

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When I read about this the first comparison that came to mind was if a teacher prays a blessing over their meal in the cafeteria could they be fired? But now I'm not sure that this is about individual freedom to pray publically as it is about undue influence on student players. More information is needed by me. Arguments in this case probably won't be heard for a few mths.

Their own meal. No, certainly not. But... if they stand up cause the cafeteria to be quite and then pray while all the students have to listen, yes, they absolutely can in a public school. (And should be.) [Union grievance process not withstanding.]
 
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SilverBear

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The US court of appeals ruled that he was not engaging in private prayer. Instead, he was engaging in public speech of an overtly religious nature while performing his job duties. It's not that he was praying it was that he was making a spectacle of praying. They further ruled that is the school had continued to allow him to engage in this sort of display they would have been in violation of the Constitution's establishment clause.

Kenedy demonstrated that it was not private prayer but public spectacle when he said he could only pray immediately at the game's conclusion on the fifty yard line
 
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SavedByGrace3

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“This case is not about a school employee praying silently during a private religious devotion,” [Americans United] said in a statement. “Rather, this case is about protecting impressionable students who felt pressured by their coach to participate repeatedly in public prayer, and a public school district that did right by its students and families.”
Impressionable students?
What about telling "impressionable" 6 graders they may be something other than their birth gender? That seems to be ok.
Crazy.
 
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SavedByGrace3

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People, students or teachers, do not hang up their faith at the school entrance any more than they hang up their gender or race.
Absurd logic.
 
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Hank77

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The US court of appeals ruled that he was not engaging in private prayer. Instead, he was engaging in public speech of an overtly religious nature while performing his job duties. It's not that he was praying it was that he was making a spectacle of praying. They further ruled that is the school had continued to allow him to engage in this sort of display they would have been in violation of the Constitution's establishment clause.

Kenedy demonstrated that it was not private prayer but public spectacle when he said he could only pray immediately at the game's conclusion on the fifty yard line
http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2021/07/19/20-35222.pdf
 
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chad kincham

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The Supreme Court said Friday it will take up the case of a high school football coach who lost his job after a contentious battle with the school district over his postgame midfield prayers.

The court’s new conservative majority has been protective of individual religious rights, and it was not a surprise it took the case of Joseph Kennedy’s legal fight with the Bremerton, Wash., school district, which began in 2015.

He has lost twice before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, although the case split the judges.

“No teacher or coach should lose their job for simply expressing their faith while in public,” said Kelly Shackelford, president and chief executive of First Liberty.

“This case is not about a school employee praying silently during a private religious devotion,” [Americans United] said in a statement. “Rather, this case is about protecting impressionable students who felt pressured by their coach to participate repeatedly in public prayer, and a public school district that did right by its students and families.”

Prayer being removed from schools is a compete con job by activist judges, who claim the constitutional clause (that only limits the ability of Congress to make a law establishing or prohibiting a state religion), prohibits all expression of Christianity in every part of government - which it does not.

Proof that our founding fathers intended no such thing as absolute separation of church and state, is the fact that from day 1, Congress set up a federally funded congressional Christian chaplains office to open each session with PRAYER; set up Christian chaplains in every branch of the military; put depictions of Moses receiving the ten commands in the Supreme Court; used a bible to swear in the first, and every subsequent president; held church services in the capital and treasury buildings, (which by the 1800s had become the largest churches in America).

The first congress also used federal funds to import KJV bibles for use as readers in the schools.

All the above proves that the founding fathers - the guys that wrote and signed the constitution, and set up the federal government - showed by their actions that they did not put separation of church and state in the constitution, (but just reading the so-called separation clause proves that) and that firing a teacher or coach for doing in public what the congressional chaplain does regularly in Congress, is what is unconstitutional.
 
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SilverBear

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Prayer being removed from schools is a compete con job by activist judges, who claim the constitutional clause (that only limits the ability of Congress to make a law establishing or prohibiting a state religion), prohibits all expression of Christianity in every part of government - which it does not.
Prayer has never been removed from the schools.
 
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Hans Blaster

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Prayer being removed from schools is a compete con job by activist judges, who claim the constitutional clause (that only limits the ability of Congress to make a law establishing or prohibiting a state religion), prohibits all expression of Christianity in every part of government - which it does not.

Yes, yes, we know. Without government employee's forcing children to be exposed to your religion it will wither on the vine and die. (How do you think I ended up outside the church?)
 
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Pommer

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Prayer being removed from schools is a compete con job by activist judges, who claim the constitutional clause (that only limits the ability of Congress to make a law establishing or prohibiting a state religion), prohibits all expression of Christianity in every part of government - which it does not.

Proof that our founding fathers intended no such thing as absolute separation of church and state, is the fact that from day 1, Congress set up a federally funded congressional Christian chaplains office to open each session with PRAYER; set up Christian chaplains in every branch of the military; put depictions of Moses receiving the ten commands in the Supreme Court; used a bible to swear in the first, and every subsequent president; held church services in the capital and treasury buildings, (which by the 1800s had become the largest churches in America).

The first congress also used federal funds to import KJV bibles for use as readers in the schools.

All the above proves that the founding fathers - the guys that wrote and signed the constitution, and set up the federal government - showed by their actions that they did not put separation of church and state in the constitution, (but just reading the so-called separation clause proves that) and that firing a teacher or coach for doing in public what the congressional chaplain does regularly in Congress, is what is unconstitutional.
“Local school board=congress” in the sense that an edict by the former is a governmental agency enforcing its rules on the general public.
 
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Mayzoo

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Prayer has never been removed from the schools.

We had a Christian Bible study "club" in my public high school. It had to be during lunch, and voluntary. We were allowed a room and a volunteer teacher who supervised while we were in that room.
 
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Impressionable students?
What about telling "impressionable" 6 graders they may be something other than their birth gender? That seems to be ok.
Crazy.
Nobody tells them that but themselves. What they tell them is if that DO feel that way, it's okay.
 
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Hans Blaster

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We had a Christian Bible study "club" in my public high school. It had to be during lunch, and voluntary. We were allowed a room and a volunteer teacher who supervised while we were in that room.

We didn't have any such club at our school. Though we didn't have any non-academic "clubs" of any kind. It was a school, not a community center.
 
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Captain Ahab

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Impressionable students?
What about telling "impressionable" 6 graders they may be something other than their birth gender? That seems to be ok.
Crazy.

Or sending them off to the school library for a drag queen puppet show with Honey Punch & Pals.
 
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keith99

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Surely this coach is NOT a Christian considering what Christ said about those who pray on street corners. What your Christ said about that surely applies to the 50 yardline of a football field with people in the stands watching.
 
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chad kincham

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“Local school board=congress” in the sense that an edict by the former is a governmental agency enforcing its rules on the general public.

The local school board isn’t passing any federal laws establishing a state religion, or prohibiting a state religion, which is the only constitutional restriction on Congress.

Congress isn’t restricted from anything else regarding religion, which is why the congressional library has had a Gutenberg Bible on display and along other Christian art and scriptures.
 
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chad kincham

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Surely this coach is NOT a Christian considering what Christ said about those who pray on street corners. What your Christ said about that surely applies to the 50 yardline of a football field with people in the stands watching.

Jesus prayed in public, Himself.

Now let’s put your quite in context: Jesus didn’t say not to ever pray in public - He said not to do it as a show of piety as the hypocrites do.

Similarly, another saying of Jesus constantly misquoted, is ‘judge not, lest ye be judged’.

Jesus never said not to judge at all, He warned against judging hypocritically, and judging falsely, and said if you judge falsely God will judge you by the same criteria, and stated to judge righteous judgment, instead.
 
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