Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/21-418_i425.pdf
Page Number: 58.0

18 

KENNEDY v. BREMERTON SCHOOL DIST. 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

that is American high school football.”  Santa Fe, 530 U. S., 
at 311. 

The record before the Court bears this out.  The District 
Court found, in the evidentiary record, that some students
reported joining Kennedy’s prayer because they felt social
pressure  to  follow  their  coach  and  teammates.    Kennedy
told the District that he began his prayers alone and that 
players followed each other over time until a majority of the
team joined him, an evolution showing coercive pressure at
work. 

Kennedy  does  not  defend  his  longstanding  practice  of
leading  the  team  in  prayer  out  loud  on  the  field  as  they
kneeled around him.  Instead, he responds, and the Court
accepts, that his highly visible and demonstrative prayer at 
the last three games before his suspension did not violate
the Establishment Clause because these prayers were quiet
and thus private.  This Court’s precedents, however, do not 
permit isolating government actions from their context in
determining  whether  they  violate  the  Establishment 
Clause.  To the contrary, this Court has repeatedly stated
that  Establishment  Clause  inquiries  are  fact  specific  and 
require careful consideration of the origins and practical re-
ality of the specific practice at issue.  See, e.g., id., at 315; 
Lee, 505 U. S., at 597.  In Santa Fe, the Court specifically
addressed how to determine whether the implementation of
a new policy regarding prayers at football games “insulates
the continuation of such prayers from constitutional scru-
tiny.”  530 U. S., at 315.  The Court held that “inquiry into
this question not only can, but must, include an examina-
tion of the circumstances surrounding” the change in policy,
the “long-established tradition” before the change, and the 
“ ‘unique  circumstances’ ”  of  the  school  in  question.    Ibid.  
This Court’s precedent thus does not permit treating Ken-
nedy’s “new” prayer practice as occurring on a blank slate, 
any  more  than  those  in  the  District’s  school  community
would have experienced Kennedy’s changed practice (to the