Supreme Court decision on football coach's post-game prayer is a game-changer, education-law expert says

This week's Supreme Court decision on a coach's post-game prayer is a game changer for public schools, says University of Dayton professor Charles J. Russo, an expert in education law.

The court has consistently ruled against school-sponsored prayer in public schools, and lower courts have mostly ruled that public-school employees can't openly pray at work even when students aren't involved. But on Monday the Supreme Court essentially affirmed employees' right to pray in the workplace. That could encourage more religious activities in public schools, Russo writes for The Conversation, a site for journalism by academic researchers:

"In Kennedy v. Bremerton School District – the Supreme Court’s first case directly addressing the question – the court ruled that a school board in Washington state violated a coach’s rights by not renewing his contract after he ignored district officials’ directive to stop kneeling in silent prayer on the field’s 50-yard line after games. He claimed that the board violated his First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religion, and the Supreme Court’s majority agreed 6-3."

Coach Joe Kennedy said the board violated his rights to speak freely and to freely practice his religion. "The Ninth Circuit twice rejected these claims because it concluded that when he prayed, he did so as a public employee whose actions could have been viewed as having the board’s approval," Russo writes. "Moreover, the Ninth Circuit agreed with the school board that the district had a compelling interest to avoid violating the establishment clause. During oral arguments at the Supreme Court, though, it was clear that the majority of justices were sympathetic to Kennedy’s claims of religious discrimination and more concerned with his rights to religious freedom than the board’s concern about violating the establishment clause."

The case is important "because the court has now decided that public school employees can pray when supervising students," and it "largely repudiates the three major tests the court has long applied in cases involving religion," leaving legal precedent in such cases unclear, Russo writes.

The ruling "also helps close out a Supreme Court term when the current justices’ increasing interest in claims of religious discrimination was on full display, with another 'church-state' case decided in religious plaintiffs’ favor just last week," Russo writes. "And on June 24, 2022, the court overturned Roe v. Wade. The debate over abortion is often framed in terms of religion, even though the court’s holding focused on other constitutional grounds."

Though evangelical Christians call the case a win, Russo questions whether that's so: "The case brings to mind the saying to be careful what one wishes for, because one’s wishes may be granted. By leaving the door open to more individual prayer in schools, the court may also open a proverbial can of worms. Will supporters who rallied behind a Christian coach be as open-minded if, or when, other groups whose values differ from their own wish to display their beliefs in public?"