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Supreme Court rules in favor of coach who prayed on soccer field

It’s one of those things that only the United States seems capable of. American football coach in a public high school in Washington State (northwest of the country), Joseph Kennedy had been fired for having prayed visibly on the ground, one knee on the ground, after the matches. The man challenged his dismissal in court, losing at all levels but continuing his fight to the Supreme Court.

The latter rendered its decision on Monday, June 27, adopted by six votes to three: the rights of “coach Joe” have indeed been violated. “By banning Mr. Kennedy’s brief prayer, the district’s impugned policies were neither neutral nor of general application”explains the published text, while the freedoms of religion and religious expression are enshrined in the First Amendment.

For the judges, it was therefore necessary to respect the“sincerely motivated religious exercise”realized “briefly” at the end of a match, i.e. at a time “where coaches were free to attend to their personal affairs briefly and where students were engaged in other pursuits”which means that ‘Mr. Kennedy did not say his prayers as part of his coaching duties’.

Judges divided

“In other words, Mr. Kennedy’s prayers did not owe their existence to Mr. Kennedy’s responsibilities as a public employee”insists the decision, arguing that “Respect for religious expressions is essential to life in a free and diverse Republic”. For the Court, the coach was therefore the victim of a ” discrimination “ that “the Constitution neither imposes nor tolerates”.

Written by Neil Gorsuch, appointed in 2017 to the Supreme Court by Donald Trump, this decision received the consent of the five other judges appointed by presidents from the Republican Party. Conversely, she was rejected by the other three judges, all appointed by Democratic presidents – one by Bill Clinton, two by Barack Obama. A few days after the reversal of the “Roe vs. Wade” decision on abortion, this decision once again marks the ideological division between the judges of the Supreme Court.

Likewise, it also manifests the extensive interpretation of religious freedom by this predominantly conservative Court. An analysis of these decisions concerning prisoners had shown that she ruled in their favor only when religious rights were in question.

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