COURTS THOUGHTS ON PRAYER AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome everyone to inside the badge. We delve deep into
understanding criminal law. So let's get started. They were going
to be looking at prayer in the public school system,

(00:24):
and we're looking at several cases. One is Ingal versus
Vitally three seventy US. In nineteen sixty two, in Abington
School District versus Shemp, the Supreme Court ruled that state
sponsored prayer and activities are prohibited in the public schools
as they violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment
it has. It also ruled that students can engage in

(00:46):
prayer and Bible study clubs during non instructional hours, but
school staff cannot be involved. In twenty twenty two, the
Supreme Court decided Kennedy versus Bremerton School District as to
whether at Washington State School Board violated the right place
of a football coach because the coach refused to stop
kneeling and silent prayer on the school field after football games.

(01:07):
Can educational officials prohibit school staff from praying in front
of students in an effort to avoid promoting certain religions
and violating the establishment cause Well, let's take a look
at this. The Court ruled of the school district violated
Court Kennedy's coach Kennedy's First Amendment rights by prohibiting his
postgame prayers on the field. The decision represents a departure

(01:28):
from the Court's earlier approach in cases like Anger, Engel
and Abington, which emphasized strict separation between religion and public education.
What particularly stood out is how Kennedy represents the significant
departure from President. The six to three majority completely abandoned
the Lemon test that had guided Establishment Clause cases for decades,

(01:49):
instead adopted a historical practice and understandings test that fundamentally
changes the landscape. Justice Gorsich's opinion dramatically narrows what counts
as government speech, classifying Coach Kennedy's very public prayers as
private religious expression deserving constitutional protection. The shift mirrors what

(02:11):
some claim describes as a court's dramatic change and approach
to the Establishment cause, moving from viewing it as creating
a wall separating church and state seeing it as a
preventing coercion. So it's interesting to see how the court,
the Court will change generation after generation and whoever's in

(02:32):
the system. So the Court at the end of the day.
The court ruled that the school district violated coach Kennedy's
First Amendment rights by prohibiting his postgame prayers on the field.
The decision reppresents again a departure from the Court's earlier
approach in cases like Engel, which was about fifty years
ago in Abington, which emphasized strict separation between religious and

(02:52):
public education, and now the view is public prayers are
viewed as private religious expression deserving constitutional protection.