Freedom of religion counts, says top court

The Supreme Court continued to rankle the left with its ruling Monday underscoring the religious freedom protections of the First Amendment.

The court sided with Joseph Kennedy, a football coach at Bremerton High School in Washington state, who sought to kneel and pray on the field after games.

That this issue wound up in the Supreme Court says much about the times we live in.

Prayer in schools — or even on a school’s football field — is seen by liberals as a trapdoor leading to dissolution of church and state.

As the Associated Press reported, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in dissent that Monday’s decision “sets us further down a perilous path in forcing states to entangle themselves with religion.” She was joined in her dissent by Justice Stephen Breyer and Justice Elena Kagan.

Sotomayor, it should be noted, was sworn into the Court with one hand on a Bible, as were other justices. Sotomayor also used a Bible belonging to Justice Thurgood Marshall when presiding over Vice President Kamala Harris’ swearing in, and Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath of office to the president using a Biden family Bible.

If one has the freedom to acknowledge God inside the Beltway, that same freedom extends to the rest of America.

Monday’s decision does not encourage enforced religious participation. Former Bremerton High coach Kennedy, a Christian, initially prayed alone on the 50-yard line at the end of games. Students started joining him, and over time he began to deliver a short, inspirational talk with religious references. Kennedy did that for years and also led students in locker room prayers. The school district learned what he was doing in 2015 and asked him to stop.

So Kennedy ended the locker room and field prayer sessions, but kept on praying on the field by himself, with students free to join if they wished. The school was worried about lawsuits over violating students’ religious freedom, and asked him to stop altogether. When Kennedy still knelt to pray on the field, Bremerton High put him on paid leave.

In a statement, the Bremerton School District and their attorneys at Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, said the Supreme Court’s decision undermines that separation required by the Constitution.

The same Constitution that protects the freedom of religion. The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 for the coach with the conservative justices in the majority and its liberals in dissent. The justices said the coach’s prayer was protected by the First Amendment.

“The Constitution and the best of our traditions counsel mutual respect and tolerance, not censorship and suppression, for religious and nonreligious views alike,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority.

Mutual respect and tolerance are excellent qualities to teach in schools, and Bremerton missed its own teachable moment.

Many Americans pray — at vigils after tragedies in the community or on a national scale, in memory of the fallen, in times of grief and joy.

And we pray as a country — a yearly tradition started by President Harry Truman in 1952 and carried on by every president since.

In his statement on this year’s National Day of Prayer in May, President Biden noted on the White House web site, “Prayer is a sacred right protected by free speech and religious liberty enshrined in our Constitution, and it continues to lift our spirits as we navigate the challenges of our time.”

Amen to that.