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Page Number: 56.0

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KENNEDY v. BREMERTON SCHOOL DIST. 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

not,  consistent  with  the  Establishment  Clause,  place  pri-
mary  and  secondary  school  children”  in  the  dilemma  of 
choosing  between  “participating,  with  all  that  implies,  or
protesting” a religious exercise in a public school.  Lee, 505 
U. S., at 593. 

Given  the  twin  Establishment  Clause  concerns  of  en-
dorsement and coercion, it is unsurprising that the Court 
has consistently held integrating prayer into public school 
activities  to  be  unconstitutional,  including  when  student 
participation is not a formal requirement or prayer is silent. 
See Wallace, 472 U. S. 38 (mandatory moment of silence for 
prayer); School Dist. of Abington Township v. Schempp, 374 
U. S.  203  (1963)  (nonmandatory  recitation  of  Bible  verses 
and prayer); Engel, 370 U. S., at 424 (nonmandatory recita-
tion of one-sentence prayer).  The Court also has held that 
incorporating  a  nondenominational  general  benediction
into  a  graduation  ceremony  is  unconstitutional.  Lee,  505 
U. S. 577.  Finally, this Court has held that including pray-
ers  in  student  football  games  is  unconstitutional,  even 
when  delivered  by  students  rather  than  staff  and  even 
when students themselves initiated the prayer.  Santa Fe 
Independent School Dist. v. Doe, 530 U. S. 290 (2000). 

B 
Under these precedents, the Establishment Clause viola-
tion  at  hand  is  clear.  This  Court  has  held  that  a  “[s]tate 
officia[l]  direct[ing]  the  performance  of  a  formal  religious 
exercise” as a part of the “ceremon[y]” of a school event “con-
flicts  with  settled  rules  pertaining  to  prayer  exercises  for 
students.”  Lee, 505 U. S., at 586–587.  Kennedy was on the
job as a school official “on government property” when he
incorporated  a  public,  demonstrative  prayer  into  “govern-
ment-sponsored school-related events” as a regularly sched-
uled feature of those events.  Santa Fe, 530 U. S., at 302. 

Kennedy’s tradition of a 50-yard line prayer thus strikes
at the heart of the Establishment Clause’s concerns about