The case forced the justices to wrestle with how to balance the religious and free speech rights of teachers and coaches with the rights of students not to feel pressured into participating in religious practices. The liberal justices in the minority said there was evidence that the midfield prayers had a coercive effect on students and allowed Kennedy to incorporate his “personal religious beliefs into a school event.”
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“The biggest mistake that happened out of the Kennedy decision was that the Supreme Court justices focused so much on the coach’s rights … and they just completely disregarded the view of students,” said Line, of the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
Since the ruling, Line’s group has received some prayer-related complaints, including one about a North Carolina coach holding a prayer service and a baptism on the field, and several about pregame prayers over public address systems at high schools in Alabama. Line is convinced that more coaches previously cautious about team prayers will be emboldened to emulate Kennedy.
“That’s definitely going to happen. I just don’t know how widespread it will be,” Line said. “In the past, school districts, I think, felt a lot more comfortable to say, ‘Hey, knock it off.’ And now some school districts may misinterpret this and be afraid to protect their students.”
John Bursch, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, praised the high court’s ruling.
“I don’t think that in the months since the decision that there’s been much conflict in the public square other than by those who want to completely eliminate prayer and religion from the public square altogether,” Bursch said.
Rachel Laser is president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which represented the Bremerton school board in the case. She lamented that the Supreme Court “adopted the deceitful narrative that Kennedy was praying quietly and to himself.” She also worried that it will encourage other coaches and teachers “who view public schools as a mission field.”
Laser said it’s too early to assess the ruling’s impact, and suggested some students may be fearful of speaking up.
“We won’t get reports of every case like this because it takes a lot of courage even to file a report online, let alone to pursue it,” she said. “Our plaintiffs have had their windows shot through, their pets killed, received death threats and have been ostracized in their community — the full gamut of terrible things.”
Some public school coaches in Alabama, Oklahoma and Tennessee acknowledged feeling vindicated by the ruling and said they would continue to pray with students, but declined to be identified publicly because they didn’t want to draw attention to their teams.
Others worry the ruling could have a negative impact.
Steve Sell, longtime athletic director and football coach at Aragon High School in San Mateo, California, said athletes competing for playing time could feel pressured to pray to please their coach.
