O’Connor lauds Supreme Court victory

OKLAHOMA CITY --- In an important victory for religious liberty, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled in favor of a high school football coach in Washington State who was fired simply because he “knelt at midfield after games to offer a quite prayer of thanks.” In Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, the Court overturned several lower court decisions and held 6-3 that Coach Kennedy’s First Amendment rights to free speech and free exercise were violated.

“The Constitution neither mandates nor tolerates that kind of discrimination,” the Court emphasized. “Respect for religious expressions is indispensable to life in a free and diverse Republic—whether those expressions take place in a sanctuary or on a field, and whether they manifest through the spoken word or a bowed head.”

Attorney General John O’Connor filed an amicus brief in support of Coach Kennedy, alongside 26 States, urging the Court to protect Coach Kennedy’s exercise of his First Amendment rights. “The States and their local governments employ Americans throughout the country as, for example, attorneys, civic planners, nurses, park rangers, police officers, and professors,” the multistate coalition pointed out. “These Americans do not abandon their religious liberty at the doors of their workplaces. … Private religious expression and public service can and must coexist.”

“Had this case gone the other way, or had the Supreme Court simply sat on its hands, countless Oklahomans in public service could have had their livelihoods threatened for merely living out their religious beliefs,” Attorney General O’Connor said. “The Court once again had the courage to do the right thing and uphold our bedrock constitutional rights, ensuring that religious believers, like Coach Kennedy, don’t face invidious discrimination.”