Source: http://intermediatescrutiny.com/2015/12/scholastic-football-coaches-praying-constitutional/
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 00:58:22+00:00

Document:
The Districts’ letter to Mr. Kennedy provided an itemized list of what he could and could not do concerning religious activities and expression in the future.
Supporters of the District say that the Establishment Clause calls for the government to stay out of religion. “So we have powerful law — consistently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court — preventing the government from telling us how or how not to worship. It basically says government must be neutral and cannot endorse or disapprove of any religious activity. “3 The newspaper’s Editorial Board reasons that if an employee leading a prayer during a school activity, the government is no long neutral, and is establishing a religion.
It seems like the Bremerton School District assumes there is an Establishment Clause violation and starts its letter from there. Especially with recent Supreme Court precedent, identifying what is permissible and impermissible religious expression is a difficult task. Furthermore, I will argue the symbolic religious expression doctrine seemingly permits Assistant Coach Kennedy’s actions.
There are times when prayer is permissible, even if sanctioned by those who work in the government. Both Marsh and Town of Greece opinions note that prayers before legislative sessions go back to our nation’s founding. This by no means is a new concept.
What is unconstitutional is the establishment of religion.
It would be a different story if students were somehow forced to listen or participate in the prayer, but that does not seem to be the case here. Just as one is free to leave a city council meeting while a religious invocation is being made, there does not seem to be anything stopping students from not participating in the prayers.
Without the school district indicating how students are coerced by Mr. Kennedy’s religious expression it is impossible to claim there is an establishment of religion.
Santa Fe Independent School Dist. v. Doe, 530 US 290, 304 (2000).
Seattle Times editorial board, Freedom compromised with prayer at Bremerton football games, Oct. 28, 2015, available at: http://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/editorials/freedom-compromised-with-prayer-at-bremerton-football-game/.
Lynch v. Donnelly, 465 US 668, 693 (1984) (quoting Committee for Public Education & Religious Liberty v. Nyquist, 413 U. S. 756, 760 (1973)).
Town of Greece, NY v. Galloway, 134 S. Ct. 1811, 1818 (2014).
Lynch v. Donnelly, 465 US 668, 693 (1984).
C.f. Cole v. Oroville Union High School Dist., 228 F. 3d 1092 (9th Cir. 2000) (noting the school district required students to sign contracts requiring students to dress and act in a certain way in order to attend the optional graduation ceremony where unbeknownst to school officials two students chosen to speak would deliver prayers).

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