Press Release  AG Healey Statement on SCOTUS Decision in School Prayer Case

BOSTON — AG Healey today issued the following statement in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Joseph A. Kennedy v. Bremerton School District:

“Sports can be a powerful tool for bringing people from all backgrounds together, and kids from diverse religious backgrounds should have the chance to be part of a team without being pressured to pray. The football field is for playing, not for forcing religion on children. I’m disappointed that the Court failed to recognize that team prayer can be coercive, alienating, and exclusionary for many student-athletes and their families.”

BACKGROUND:

This case was brought by a public high school football coach in Bremerton, Washington who was disciplined for insisting on engaging in public prayer with students at midfield following the end of each football game. School district officials asked him to stop, concerned that students might feel pressured to participate, and offered alternative accommodations, but the plaintiff refused and his contract was not renewed by the school board. The coach sued the school district in 2015 and both the federal district court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals have ruled in the school district’s favor.

AG Healey joined an amicus brief led by New York Attorney General Letitia James arguing that the plaintiff’s prayers on the field were not protected under the First Amendment because he was on duty and engaged in his job responsibilities immediately after the game while students were still on the field. The brief, co-signed by 13 other state attorneys general, further noted the danger of incorporating overtly religious exercises into school functions, pointing out the risks of undermining religious freedom and of coercion, especially in an athletic function where students could feel pressured to participate in order to be part of the team.

###