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PRESS RELEASE
GREAT LAKES JUSTICE CENTER
JUNE 27, 2022 CONTACT: DAVID A. KALLMAN
dave@greatlakesjc.org (517) 993-9123
SUPREME COURT RESTORES THE TRUE MEANING OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT AND ABANDONS LEMON TEST FOR RELIGIOUS RIGHTS CASES
Coach Kennedy Wins Prayer Case
In a landmark case, Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, Professor William Wagner and Great Lakes Justice Center represented NFL Hall of Fame athlete (two-time Superbowl Champion) Darrell Green. We filed a Supreme Court brief in support of a high school coach urging the Court to abandon the Lemon test. Coach Kennedy lost his job because he took a knee and prayed after football games. The government claimed it needed to stop the coach from praying, saying if it did not do so it would be violating the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. In an historic decision, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the infamous legal rule that said the Establishment Clause required government actors to have a secular reason for every action, and to not even symbolically endorse a religious view. The Court returned our nation to the plain meaning of the First Amendment. Praying on a football field does not establish a religious government; when read together with the First Amendment free exercise and speech clauses, praying does not, therefore, violate the Establishment Clause. The Court specifically abandoned the Lemon Test to analyze cases under the First Amendment.
The Court held that the First Amendment protects “an individual engaging in a personal religious observance from government reprisal; the Constitution neither mandates nor permits the government to suppress such religious expression.” Read the complete opinion of the court here: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21-418_i425.pdf.
In its opinion SCOTUS further ruled: “An Establishment Clause violation does not automatically follow whenever a public school or other government entity “fail[s] to censor” private religious speech. Nor does the Clause “compel the government to purge from the public sphere” anything an objective observer could reasonably infer endorses or “partakes of the religious.” … But learning how to tolerate speech or prayer of all kinds is “part of learning how to live in a pluralistic society,” a trait of character essential to “a tolerant citizenry.”
Constitutional Law Professor William Wagner, President of Great Lakes Justice Center, stated: “When freeing human beings atrociously held as slaves, Lincoln invoked the favor of Almighty God in the Emancipation Proclamation. Today the Supreme Court reversed a legal rule that would have held Lincoln's action, and praying, unconstitutional. In doing so, the Court returns the First Amendment to its true meaning."
David Kallman, Senior Legal Counsel for Great Lakes Justice Center, stated: “We are pleased that the Court accepted our argument to finally bury the Lemon Test. Today, the Court has returned to following the plain language of the Constitution. We are thrilled that Coach Kennedy has been vindicated and his religious conscience rights have been upheld.”
For further information, please contact David Kallman.
The Great Lakes Justice Center is a non-profit organization defending First Amendment liberties and other civil rights issues. The attorneys at the Center have spent countless hours to protect its client’s constitutional freedoms and are grateful to minister to such important causes. To support the Great Lakes Justice Center’s important work to protect our nation’s first freedoms, please visit them at www.greatlakesjc.org.
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21-418_i425.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0xx-o51C6TYdDeKNq6t4rYuCTb4bO0miIDBl-YGUj1ctqH3X77_3g7h4w&mibextid=vgW32m&fs=e&s=cl