Washington (AFP) - The US Supreme Court opened the door to the expansion of religion in public schools Monday when conservative justices backed a Christian high school football coach who lost his job after leading his team in post-game prayers on the field.
The court voted 6-3 along conservative-liberal lines that Joe Kennedy, a coach for Bremerton High School in Washington state, was protected by the US constitution's guarantee of religious freedom when in 2015 he ignored supervisors' warnings and continued to pray after the games.
The high-profile case pitted backers of the principles of free exercise of religion with those focused on the constitution's insistence on separation of church and state -- that is, that public schools should not impose specific religious practices on students.
But the two sides of the court split starkly on the basic facts of the case, in an echo of other recent landmark decisions on gun rights and abortion that have marked the powerful ascension of the court's conservative majority.
Kennedy, a former marine, began post-game prayers at the field's 50-yard-line in 2008.
The school told him to halt the custom in 2015 after players began joining in, arguing that he was violating its ban on staff encouraging students to pray.
He continued to pray on his own, but after attracting extensive media attention, he resumed group prayers, joined by members of the public, leading to his suspension.
When his contract expired, it was not renewed.
Kennedy sued the school district on grounds of religious freedom, and the six conservative justices backed him, saying he had a right to pray on his own after the game.
"Joseph Kennedy lost his job as a high school football coach because he knelt at midfield after games to offer a quiet prayer of thanks," Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the majority opinion.
Gorsuch said that he "offered his prayers quietly while his students were otherwise occupied," he wrote.
Repeated offenses
The three progressive justices rejected that characterization, saying Kennedy's prayers were not simply private and quiet, and that he chose to defy the school district policy against both encouraging and discouraging religious activities by students.
"Kennedy consistently invited others to join his prayers and for years led student athletes in prayer at the same time and location.The Court ignores this history," they said.
They also noted that, after being told he could not lead the group prayers during school activities, Kennedy hired a lawyer and declared in multiple media appearances that he would resume group prayers at games.
He did so three more times, inviting members of the public and state politicians to pray with him.
"The last three games proved that Kennedy did not intend to pray silently, but to thrust the district into incorporating a religious ceremony into its events," they wrote.
That violated the constitution's "establishment clause," they argued, which forbids authorities from involvement in establishing religious practices.
It was the third judgment in recent weeks that saw the court's conservative majority -- all Christians -- endorse the involvement of government in religious activities.
In one earlier case, they ruled that a state cannot deny church-backed schools public funding.
In the other, Boston was told it cannot forbid a religious flag from being flown over the city hall if other private group flags can be flown.
