WASHINGTON (July 27, 2022)— A month has passed since the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District which ruled in favor of Washington state football coach Joseph Kennedy who insisted on praying immediately after games, on the fifty-yard line, in full sight of his players who were encouraged to participate. Since then, school districts across the country have reported they are grappling with advocates eager to push religious worship – specifically Christian prayer -- into public schools nationwide.
As schools reopen in August many will grapple how to manage the new legal landscape laid out by the Supreme Court.
Robert Tuttle is the David R. and Sherry Kirschner Berz Research Professor of Law and Religion at the George Washington University Law School. He also worked on an amicus brief in support of the school district’s position.
In a blog post published on the day of the Supreme Court’s decision in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District Tuttle wrote this:
“Kennedy v. Bremerton School District is only the latest in what has now become a lengthy string of decisions that elevate the free exercise of religion over all competing interests, constitutional and otherwise…. It does not take a Religion Clause scholar to see what has been going on at the Supreme Court over the last dozen years. Religion always wins. Sometimes religion is on the side of challengers, like those in Kennedy and Carson. Sometimes religion is on the side of government, as in cases like Town of Greece and American Humanist. And in every case before the Supreme Court, the religion in the case is Christianity.”