This week, Arizona State Rep. Shawnna Bolick stepped up to join 43 organizations and individuals in filing an amicus brief in a case involving the right to pray. The case, involving a high school coach, is considered a “significant” religious-liberty matter pending before the United States Supreme Court.
The case concerns Coach Joseph Kennedy’s First Amendment right to engage in personal religious expression in the workplace.
“It is my honor to stand with Coach Joseph Kennedy. After Coach Kennedy’s 30 seconds of personal prayer following a football game, he was suspended and later placed on administrative leave by the Bremerton, Wash. School District,” said Bolick. “Coach Kennedy’s personal devotion does not violate the Establishment Clause, as he has a fundamental right to freely exercise his religion that is part of our Republic’s founding.”
“The First Amendment was adopted to prohibit the government from interfering with a person’s religious practices. Yet, currently, the First Amendment rights of our teachers and other public employees to engage in private religious expression is under attack,” continued Bolick. “Coach Kennedy did not surrender his rights when he became a public high school football coach. Our God-given constitutional rights are sacred and need to be secured against government encroachment.”
No right is more fundamental under our Constitution than the ability of every citizen to give personal thanks to God for the blessings of His provision. And there is no exception to the First Amendment that allows the rights of public servants to practice their faith to be relegated to a lesser constitutional status. Many public officials enter public service as an answer to faith’s call, and the Constitution does not permit the government to deny such men and women the opportunity to humbly and devotedly give thanks to their Creator.
Yet when high school football coach Joseph Kennedy engaged in 30 seconds of personal prayer at the conclusion of a football game, the school district that employed him first suspended him and then placed him on administrative leave. The Ninth Circuit upheld the school district’s discriminatory adverse employment actions as necessary to avoid a governmental establishment of religion. That is wrong. This Court should reverse the Ninth Circuit, and hold that public officials have a constitutionally protected right under the First Amendment to offer personal prayers of thanks. A rule that would require public officials to forego personal prayer while performing the public duties to which God has called them would drum the faithful out of public life.