Judging Freedom - Our Right to Pray

Episode Date: April 25, 2022

The Supreme Court Looks at Our Right to PraySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello there everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Monday, April 25th, 2022. It's about 1255 in the afternoon here on the east coast of the United States. In the Supreme Court of the United States, about 300 miles from where I am now, an oral argument was held this morning involving a high school football coach from Bremerton, Washington with the name of John Kennedy. This ex-Marine, very popular football coach from time to time would go down on one knee at the 50-yard line at the end of a game whether his team won or lost and would give a prayer to God, thanking God for victory or thanking God for the courage and the grace to accept a loss. He started doing this on

his own, and eventually more and more of his players joined. And then, of course, some of the players and some of their parents objected, and the school board told him to stop. He refused to stop. His contract wasn't renewed. He sued the school board for failing to renew his contract for a reason against public policy. The lower courts upheld the school board, but the case is now before the Supreme Court. So the question is, can a high school football coach in a public school, so he's an agent of the government, conduct a public prayer service? The First Amendment is pretty clear that the government may not interfere with the free exercise of religion. But the courts have held that a school environment is inherently coercive, and even if a teacher or a coach says to a football player or a student or both,

you can leave. You don't have to participate in this prayer. It's an inherently coercive environment. That's at least what the Supreme Court has held up until now. So we have a classic clash of rights here. The rights of the students to pray. The right of the coach to pray. The right of the students to be free from any coercive environment, coercive by the state. I mean, the parents can coerce the students into praying. That's the parent-child relationship, which is protected from interference by the state. But can the state impose even the slightest touch on the student conscience with respect to prayer? That's what the court's going to have to answer. I think the

court is going to uphold the right of this coach to engage in these prayers. And the reason I think that is because students are more and more mature today, more and more individualistic, less and less subject to the gentle touch of the governmental finger, which is a phrase from one of the old Supreme Court opinions the last time the court looked at this. So my opinion, the court will say to the coach, you can pray, students can join you, and they can not join you. And there can't be the slightest coercion on them to stay or to leave. That decision has to be theirs, not their parents, but theirs. Expect a decision in June. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom.