Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/21-418_i425.pdf
Page Number: 41

Cite as:  597 U. S. ____ (2022) 

1 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

_________________ 

No. 21–418 
_________________ 

JOSEPH A. KENNEDY, PETITIONER v. 
BREMERTON SCHOOL DISTRICT 

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF 
APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT 

[June 27, 2022] 

JUSTICE  SOTOMAYOR,  with  whom  JUSTICE  BREYER  and 

JUSTICE KAGAN join, dissenting. 

This case is about whether a public school must permit a
school official to kneel, bow his head, and say a prayer at 
the center of a school event.  The Constitution does not au-
thorize,  let  alone  require,  public  schools  to  embrace  this 
conduct.  Since  Engel  v.  Vitale,  370  U. S.  421  (1962),  this
Court consistently has recognized that school officials lead-
ing  prayer  is  constitutionally  impermissible.    Official-led 
prayer strikes at the core of our constitutional protections 
for  the  religious  liberty  of  students  and  their  parents,  as 
embodied  in  both  the Establishment  Clause and  the  Free 
Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. 

The Court now charts a different path, yet again paying 
almost  exclusive  attention  to  the  Free  Exercise  Clause’s 
protection  for  individual  religious  exercise  while  giving
short  shrift  to  the  Establishment  Clause’s  prohibition  on
state establishment of religion.  See Carson v. Makin, 596 
U. S. ___, ___ (2022) (BREYER, J., dissenting) (slip op., at 1).
To  the  degree  the  Court  portrays  petitioner  Joseph  Ken-
nedy’s  prayers  as  private  and  quiet,  it  misconstrues  the 
facts.  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