Coach K and his prayer

EDIT- I have quit trying to format this thing. It WILL NOT COOPERATE. Read at yer own risk.

Nor does anyone question that, in forbidding Mr. Kennedy's brief prayer, the District failed to act pursuant to a neutral and generally applicable rule. A government policy will not qualify as neutral if it is "specifically directed at . . . religious practice." So said the majority decision of the US Supreme Court on the recent decision on prayer and school.

Those two sentences are gonna cause splodey heads. 

Satanists have already shown up once. They are gonna do it again. Under the SCOTUS decision, they have the right to do that. 

If you want prayer in school, you have it. That the prayer horrifies you is your problem. This is, literally, what you asked for if you support this ruling. Disagree if you like. Read this.

A public school system or District is government.

Lemme put this in Supreme Court language, which I will immediately explain afterward. Do not grow vociferous in your call for rejection of the comestible when you are the one who applied sufficient torque to dislodge the containment system seal which heretofore restricted the annelids. 

In plain English - Do not complain about the sandwich when you open the can of worms.

ABOUT THAT DECISION

So, about that decision on the coach and praying...

Read the decision for yourself. 

And read this - Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. That's 1A

While we are at it, read the 14th Amendment -  14A, as currently interpreted sort of, makes the rest of the Constitution also apply to the states. Sort of, because given the current state of the Supreme Court, this could change before you get done reading this sentence.

Here is what the Kennedy v. Bremerton School District decision says in plainer language than the judges used: Coach K can pray, the WAY he tried to do it. 

The Supremes wrote: The Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses of the First Amendment protect an individual engaging in a personal religious observance from government reprisal; the Constitution neither mandates nor permits the government to suppress such religious expression.

In plain English - Practice your religion as you see fit unless you are harming someone. Government can't stop you. Wanna dance naked under an oak tree? Cue up the Flashdance soundtrack and have at it. At the same time, government cannot make you dance naked under an oak tree.

This covers all religions, including the Church of the Latter Day Dude, Jediism, Satanism, Jainism, Pastafarian and other religious beliefs you have never heard of. It also covers agnostics and atheists.

Aside: That guy who ended a prayer with "Amen and Awomen" has a profound misunderstanding of language.

In school terms, this means teachers cannot lead students in prayer. Student-lead prayer is acceptable. Teachers can pray; they just cannot require students to join them. This. Is. Critical.

NOT LEADING PRAYER

Everyone in this case agrees Coach Kennedy did not require anyone to join him in prayer. He said that. The school district said that. The lawyers for both sides said that.

In the opening remarks, the decision says - Here, no one questions that Mr. Kennedy seeks to engage in a sincerely motivated religious exercise involving giving "thanks through prayer" briefly "on the playing field" at the conclusion of each game he coaches. App. 168, 171. The contested exercise here does not involve leading prayers with the team;

I point out the opening remarks are NOT the decision. It is a recap of the case. A statement of the facts, in other words. The majority decision and the dissent follows.

In short, the School District fired him because they were afraid his prayer could be considered approved by the School System.

MAJORITY

The majority ruled for Coach K. 

The exercise in question involves, as Mr. Kennedy has put it, giving thanks through prayer" briefly and by himself "on the playing field" at the conclusion of each game he coaches. Mr. Kennedy has indicated repeatedly that he is wlling to "wai[t] until the game is over and the players have left the field" to "wal[k] to mid-field to say [his] short, private, personal prayer." 

During the postgame period when these prayers occurred, coaches were free to attend briefly to personal matters—everything from checking sports scores on their phones to greeting friends and family in the stands. 

With that reading, Coach K is 100% legal and Constitutional.

The majority decision says, Initially, Mr. Kennedy prayed on his own. But over time, some players asked whether they could pray alongside him. 991 F. 3d 1004, 1010 (CA9 2021); App. 169. Mr. Kennedy responded by saying, "'This is a free country. You can do what you want.'" Ibid. The number of players who joined Mr. Kennedy eventually grew to include most of the team, at least after some games. Sometimes team members invited opposing players to join. Other times Mr. Kennedy still prayed alone.

Pretty clear. Students asked to join him. He did not say yes; he did not say no. He said students could do as they wanted.

Absolutely NOT government ordered religion under a plain reading of the coach's comments.

The majority's words go on to add some of the kids prayed before and after a game and that started before Coach K got there. Coach K led this, which is wrong. After getting a complaint, he stopped doing that. The kids were welcome to pray as they wished.

Further, Coach K said he would do his postgame prayer after the students left the field. Solidly OK. The school system waffled on this one saying sorta no and sorta yes at different times. 

When it comes to Mr. Kennedy's free speech claim, our precedents remind us that the First Amendment's protections extend to "teachers and students," neither of whom "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School Dist., 393 U. S. 503, 506 (1969); see also Lane v. Franks, 573 U. S. 228, 231 (2014).

DISSENT

Writing for the dissent, Judge Sonia Sotomayor says,  The record reveals that Kennedy had a longstanding practice of conducting demonstrative prayers on the 50-yard line of the football field. Kennedy consistently invited others to join his prayers and for years led student athletes in prayer at the same time and location.

Judge Sotomayor added, The Court also ignores the severe disruption to school events caused by Kennedy's conduct. Dunno where she is from, but it ain't the South I come from. After the fooball game, the field is swamped by people from all around the stadium. A coach and a few folks taking a knee to pray after the game is not a disruption. May be different up in Washington State where this case comes from. Coach K. prayed after the game.

Point of order. The Court did not ignore anything. Again, from the opening statement, The timing and circumstances of Mr. Kennedy's prayers—during the postgame period when coaches were free to attend briefly to personal matters and students were engaged in other activities—confirms that Mr. Kennedy did not offer his prayers while acting within the scope of his duties as a coach.

In plain English, Coach K was not being a coach when he took a knee after the game. He was doing his own thing, which is clearly permitted.

COACH IS COACH IS COACH

Now, lemme monkey wrench these gears. Coach is Coach is Coach.

[T]he Ninth Circuit stressed that, as a coach, Mr. Kennedy served as a role model "clothed with the mantle of one who imparts knowledge and wisdom."

Yep. In this case, that has to figure into the decision. Well, it should anyway. It does not mean that everything a coach says and does is authorized or even acceptable to the school where he is employed. But Coach is Coach is Coach.

Page 3, still in the opening remarks, says,  It is not dispositive that Coach Kennedy served as a role model and remained on duty after games. To hold otherwise is to posit an "excessively broad job descriptio[n]" by treating everything teachers and coaches say in the workplace as government speech subject to government control.

Yeah. I had to look up the word "dispositive" and after writing this, I will immediately forget what it means.

The Court says here that a coach is also a person with a life beyond being a coach. Everything he (or she) does is not related to being a coach. True. The Court says Coach K's after-game prayer is not part of him being a coach.

I say they sorta got this one wrong. Here is why.

1) Coach K repeatedly said his after-game prayer is done win or lose. He said, repeatedly, the prayer is part of an agreement he has with his God regarding the game. In that view, his prayer is part of being a coach.

2) Coach is Coach is Coach. What I mean by that is, a coach is always and forever a coach to the people he instructed. Anything and everything that coach does, it is seen as "Coach (whatever) did that. Coach (whatever) said  that." A coach is a coach 24/7/365 to the people who know him. I know coaches who are retired for decades. They are still called "Coach." I coached T-Ball when my kids were little. The kids (now adults) who remember still call me Coach.

3) Very few people ever generate the respect a coach has. This respect puts the coach and his actions and words on a higher level than anyone else including law enforcement, elected officials and others.

4) It is easier to leave a motorcycle gang than to stop being Coach. If you ever had a coach or are a coach, you get that.

5) A coach is a role model 24/7/365. Anything he does is seen as an example, a way to do something. The players he coaches at that time will watch everything he does and they will try to do it.

6) He is never NOT a coach. He is always a figure of authority no matter how old his former players get or how long ago they played for him. As the school system argued, Mr. Kennedy "wielded enormous authority and influence over the students," and students might have felt compelled to pray alongside him.

Yep.

Taking all 6 points I list here, when Coach K took a knee after the game, he was setting an example. He was, literally, teaching these kids to pray. Certainly, he never told the kids they had to join him, but some kids saw it and many joined him just because it was a coach praying. 

He was the coach. He was teaching the kids. He was leading them in prayer. At the same time, he never said they had to do that to be on the team. In fact, both sides agree Coach K said he was willing to do his prayer AFTER the kids left the field. This is why the decision is also sorta right.

Peer pressure is a significant factor too. Some of the parents report their children said as much. Football is a game of cooperation and teamwork. Outsiders simply don't work well in football. It is natural that team members would join the prayer, just to continue to be part of the team, whether they wanted to pray or not.

The flip side of that is something called personal responsibility. If all your friends jumped off a cliff, would you go too?

NOW SOME SAND

Here is some sand in those gears in case the monkey wrench did not work.

That prayer is voluntary. Players who did not join him were not punished or denied the opportunity to play. If Coach K took action against the players who did not join him, that would be flat wrong.

This way, arg. Does Coach K or any other coach have the right to pray? Absolutely. See 1A above. Can he pray on the football field? Yep. See 1A above. He just cannot require anyone to join him. Everyone agrees he did not require students or anyone else top join him. Can he pray at other times? Yep.

Still, he is coach and if the players see him do something they see as connected to the game, they will feel obligated to participate.

A SAND MONKEY WRENCH

I am now making this worse with a sand monkey wrench. Every school system I have ever covered says the coach is NOT off duty until the last player leaves the campus. As long as one player is at school, the coach is on duty and a school system employee.

At the same time, school system employees MUST be allowed some personal time and space. Bathroom breaks are necessary.

arg.

A CONSTITUTIONAL CONFLICT 

In the end, the District's case hinges on the need to generate conflict between an individual's rights under the Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses and its own Establishment Clause  duties—and then develop some explanation why one of these Clauses in the First Amendment should "'trum[p]'" the other two. ... . In truth, there is no conflict between the constitutional commands before us. There is only the "mere shadow" of a conflict, a false choice premised on a misconstruction of the Establishment Clause.

Respect for religious expressions is indispensable to life in a free and diverse Republic—whether those expressions take place in a sanctuary or on a field, and whether they manifest through the spoken word or a bowed head. 

In other words, Coach K can pray. 

ALL OR NOTHING

Based on all this, what we have is an all-or-nothing approach. Let everyone or let no one. If the school district shut down Coach K but allowed other teachers to pray, then the school district was clearly splitting the difference. Betcha other teachers prayed.

Under the District's reasoning, a teacher in the cafeteria could not bow to say grace before eating. As long as the teacher is not being loud or demanding others to participate, anyone with sense would say this is permitted. The Constitution sees no difference between saying grace and a Muslim person declining a ham sandwich in the lunch line.

In other words, that barn door was ripped off the hinges and burned. Everybody can come in, provided they do so without demanding others follow.

I do not like this decision. However, I believe it is the right one. I also do not like watermelon, very bright lights, ReDamnoboobicraticans and hot weather. Other people do enjoy these things and I shall not stand in their way as long as they do not force me to join them. Let Coach K pray. If you do not like it, show up and you too can have your quiet, non-forced say after the game is over.

Daffodils much?