The Supreme Court has been accsued of “inviting religion into the class room” after it said a high school football coach had the right to pray on the touchline.
The top court on Monday expanded the religious rights of government employees by ruling in favor of a Christian former public high school football coach in Washington state who had sued after being suspended from his job for refusing to stop leading prayers with players on the field after games.
- While the decision was cheered by the coach, Joseph Kennedy, and those who thought his first amendment rights had been abused, it was denounced by those who said the court had started to erode the traditional separartion of church and state.
- ‘If he wins, they’ll implement a Christian version of sharia law’: The community divided by prayers of high school football coach
Some parents at the school said students had felt pressured to pray with the coach.
“No one should be pressured to pray at school—this can be a harmful use of power, especially for girls & LGBTQ students,” said Sunu Chandy, Legal Director of the National Women’s Law Centre.
Author David Neihert, author of ‘Red Pill, Blue Pill: How to Counteract the Conspiracy Theories That Are Killing Us’, said: “I guess we’ve been too preoccupied with SCOTUS’s dismantling of women’s reproductive rights to notice that it also is dismantling the wall of separation between church and state.”
Rachel Laser, the CEO of the group Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which had represented Bremerton School District in the case against Mr Kennedy, said: “The Supreme Court just invited coercive prayer into public schools by ruling that Bremerton School District--a public school system-- cannot stop a coach from conducting public prayers with his team at team huddle. “
She added: A huge blow to church-state separation.”
