To put it plainly, the purposes and effects of a government action matter in evaluating whether that action violates the Establishment Clause, as numerous precedents beyond Lemon instruct in the particular context of public schools. . An Establishment Clause violation does not automatically follow whenever a public school or other government entity fail[s] to censor private religious speech. In addition, the court held that Kennedys prayer practice violated the Establishment Clause, reasoning that speech from the center of the football field immediately after each game . The Court held that inquiry into this question not only can, but must, include an examination of the circumstances surrounding the change in policy, the long-established tradition before the change, and the unique circumstances of the school in question. See Brief for Respondent 24. First Amendments protections for religion diverge from those for speech because of the Establishment Clause, which provides a specific prohibition on forms of state intervention in religious affairs with no precise counterpart in the speech provisions. Ibid. Consent to the filing of amicus briefs received from counsel for Joseph A. Kennedy submitted. October 5, 2022 Good afternoon Abington students and families, I hope this letter finds you well on a gray New England day as we enter the month of October. New York v. Ferber 482 U.S. 578, 583584 (1987). for Cert. No. 18 November 2022. Amicus brief of American Center for Law and Justice submitted. Kennedys prayer practice also implicated the coercion concerns at the center of this Courts Establishment Clause jurisprudence. Mr. Kennedy further felt pressured to abandon his practice of saying his own quiet, on-field postgame prayer. Kennedy himself apparently anticipated that his continued prayer practice would draw student participation, requesting that the District agree that it would not interfere with students joining him in the future. 26 v. Pico, 457 U.S. 853 (1982), was a case in which the United States Supreme Court split on the First Amendment issue of local school boards removing library books from junior high schools and high schools.Four Justices ruled that it was unconstitutional, four Justices concluded the contrary (with perhaps a few minor Indeed, [t]he Court has been particularly vigilant in monitoring compliance with the Establishment Clause in elementary and secondary schools. Edwards v. Aguillard, First Amendment protection. School Dist. Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Amicus brief of Thomas More Society submitted. To account for the complexity associated with the interplay between free speech rights and government employment, this Courts decisions in Pickering v. Board of Ed. Amicus brief of Chaplain Alliance For Religious Liberty submitted. Garcetti v. Ceballos, Prop 30 is supported by a coalition including CalFire Firefighters, the American Lung Association, environmental organizations, electrical workers and businesses that want to improve Californias air quality by fighting and preventing wildfires and reducing air pollution from vehicles. The city was incorporated on First Amendment claims. The Hill School November 16, 2022. When an employee speaks as a citizen addressing a matter of public concern, courts should engage in a delicate balancing of the competing interests surrounding the speech and its consequences. Kennedy was not engaged in speech ordinarily within the scope of his coaching duties. To support this argument, the District submits that, after Mr. Kennedys suspension, a few parents told District employees that their sons had participated in the team prayers only because they did not wish to separate themselves from the team. App. (Distributed). Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962) (invalidating state laws directing the use of prayer in public schools); School Dist. E. Grady Jolly dissented, objecting that now "the majority expressly exerts control over the content of its citizens' prayers. In 1963 she founded American Atheists and served as its president until 1986, after which her son Jon Garth Murray succeeded her. Instead, what matters is whether Mr. Kennedy offered his prayers while acting within the scope of his duties as a coach. These dissenters argued that this Court has long since abandoned that ahistorical, atextual approach to discerning Establishment Clause violations; they observed that other courts around the country have followed suit by renouncing it too; and they contended that the panel should have likewise recognized Lemons demise and wisely left it dead. Ibid., and n. 3. The Spring-Ford Area School District is a K-12 school district based in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States, which expands into Chester County.The District is made up of Limerick Township and Upper Providence Township, along with the boroughs of Royersford and Spring City.. 991 F.3d, at 1019. Among other things, courts at this second step have sometimes considered whether an employees speech interests are outweighed by the interest of the State, as an employer, in promoting the efficiency of the public services it performs through its employees. Id., at 417 (quoting Pickering, 391 U.S., at 568). Id., at 10201021. . App. Joint appendix filed (statement of costs filed). In the last two decades, this Court has often criticized or ignored. First Amendment may be implicated and courts should proceed to a second step. 205, Will Cty., 403 U.S. 602. (Distributed), Brief amici curiae of New York, et al. It is wrong to do so. Lane v. Franks, 173, 236239. He also moved for a preliminary injunction requiring the District to reinstate him. 991 F.3d, at 1017; App. This Courts settled precedents offer guidance to assist courts, governments, and the public in navigating these tensions. See, e.g., County of Allegheny v. American Civil Liberties Union, Greater Pittsburgh Chapter, Bose Corp. v. Consumers Union of United States, Inc. Dun & Bradstreet, Inc. v. Greenmoss Builders, Inc. Harte-Hanks Communications, Inc. v. Connaughton, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. v. FCC I, Denver Area Ed. Pa. 2005) was the first direct challenge brought in the United States federal courts testing a public school district policy that required the teaching of intelligent design, ultimately found by the court to not be science. Brief amici curiae of Current State Legislators filed. (Distributed). as purely voluntary. Id., at 311312. Town of Greece v. Galloway, [7], In the end, the Districts case hinges on the need to generate conflict between an individuals rights under the Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses and its own Establishment Clause dutiesand then develop some explanation why one of these Clauses in the She created the first issues of American Atheist Magazine and identified as a "militant feminist". 991 F.3d 1004, 1010 (CA9 2021); App. leading an orchestrated session of faith. App. for Cert. No. 505 U.S. 577, 589 (1992). News. 4.[6]. Kennedy spoke from the playing field, which was accessible only to students and school employees, not to the general public. But [o]ffense. Lemon, 403 U.S., at 612613. First, the Court describes the Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses as work[ing] in tandem to provid[e] overlapping protection for expressive religious activities, leaving religious speech doubly protect[ed]. Ante, at 11. Nor is there any record evidence that students felt pressured to participate in these prayers. To the contrary, the District conceded in a public 2015 document that there was no evidence that students [were] directly coerced to pray with Kennedy. App. Amicus brief of Jo Ann Magistro and Alan Brodman submitted. Amicus brief of American Constitutionals Rights Union submitted. Under these precedents, the Districts interest in avoiding an Establishment Clause violation justified both its time and place restrictions on Kennedys speech and his exercise of religion. (Distributed), Brief amici curiae of Washington State Charter Schools Association and California Charter Schools Association filed. Otherwise, the District would violat[e] the . A policy can fail this test if it discriminate[s] on its face, or if a religious exercise is otherwise its object. Lukumi, 508 U.S., at 533; see also Smith, 494 U.S., at 878. Amicus brief of National Education Association et al. 391 U.S. 563 (1968), Garcetti, 533 U.S. 98, 119 (2001) (emphasis deleted). Safford Unified School District v. Redding 544 U.S. 709, 719 (2005). of Abington Township v. Schempp, Petitioner Joseph Kennedy lost his job as a high school football coach in the Bremerton School District after he knelt at midfield after games to offer a quiet personal prayer. Instead, the Court explained, the critical question . Pp. See App. of Township High School Dist. Paying heed to these precedents would not purge from the public sphere anything an observer could reasonably infer endorses religion. Like the District Court, the Ninth Circuit further reasoned that, even if we were to assume . Since Engel v. Vitale, App. v. Doyle. . 18 November 2022. In the 2021-2022 school year, Abington School District provided basic educational services to 8,292 pupils. The Districts performance evaluation after the 2015 football season also advised against rehiring Mr. Kennedy on the ground that he failed to supervise student-athletes after games, but any sort of postgame supervisory requirement was not applied in an evenhanded way. Of course, none of this means the speech rights of public school employees are so boundless that they may deliver any message to anyone anytime they wish. certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the ninth circuit. The Ninth Circuit pursued this same line of thinking, insisting that the Districts interest in avoiding an Establishment Clause violation trump[ed] Mr. Kennedys rights to religious exercise and free speech. Amicus brief of Christian Legal Society submitted. Pp. Families entrust public schools with the education of their children . Abington School District, encompassing Abington Township and Rockledge Borough, is truly a community dedicated to learning. To the contrary, the Court has recognized that there will be instances when religious values, religious practices, and religious persons will have some interaction with the public schools and their students. Lee, 505 U.S., at 598599. When an employee speaks as a citizen addressing a matter of public concern, the Courts cases indicate that the To hold otherwise is to posit an excessively broad job descriptio[n] by treating everything teachers and coaches say in the workplace as government speech subject to government control. Brief amicus curiae of Galen Black filed. 21418. Oral arguments were heard March 29, 2000. It is a rule, too, that would undermine a long constitutional tradition under which learning how to tolerate diverse expressive activities has always been part of learning how to live in a pluralistic society. Lee, 505 U.S., at 590. He returned to pray in the stadium alone after his duties were over and everyone had left the stadium, to which the District had no objection. See Lukumi, 508 U.S., at 533. 572 U.S. 565, 576. Simply put: Mr. Kennedys prayers did not ow[e their] existence to Mr. Kennedys responsibilities as a public employee. First Amendment. [I]n AngloAmerican history, . Brief amicus curiae of The America First Policy Institute filed. The coercive pressures inherent in such a situation are obvious. The Little Red School House is a former one-room school house building that was last used by kindergarten students on the West Side until the 1990s. filed. Id., at 102. Board of Ed. This case is about whether a public school must permit a school official to kneel, bow his head, and say a prayer at the center of a school event. First Amendment. See Part IIC, supra. Kennedy, however, ultimately refused to respond to the Districts suggestions and declined to communicate with the District, except through media appearances. The District arrived at a different understanding this way. Households, 2016-2020: 122,354,219: Persons per household, 2016-2020: 2.60: Living in same house 1 year ago, percent of persons age 1 year+, 2016-2020 205, Will Cty., school Puzzlingly, the Court goes a step further and suggests that Kennedy may have been in violation of the District policy on Religious-Related Activities and Practices if he did not permit the players to join his prayers because the policy prohibited staff from discourag[ing] student prayer. This case is about whether a school district is required to allow one of its employees to incorporate a public, communicative display of the employees personal religious beliefs into a school event, where that display is recognizable as part of a longstanding practice of the employee ministering religion to students as the public watched. It is whether permitting Kennedy to continue a demonstrative prayer practice at the center of the football field after years of inappropriately leading students in prayer in the same spot, at that same time, and in the same manner, which led students to feel compelled to join him, violates the Establishment Clause. A government entitys concerns about phantom constitutional violations do not justify actual violations of an individuals Acknowledging that Mr. Kennedys prayers represented his own private speech means he has carried his threshold burden. Accordingly, his right to pray at any time and in any manner he wishes while exercising his professional duties is not absolute. Establishment Clause Pp. to understand that a school does not endorse, let alone coerce them to participate in, speech that it merely permits on a nondiscriminatory basis. Mergens, 496 U.S., at 250 (plurality opinion). 170. Brief amicus curiae of Alabama Center for Law and Liberty filed. Amicus brief of World Faith Foundation, et al. to Pet. Even if the personal prayers Mr. Kennedy sought to offer after games are not themselves coercive, the dissent suggests that they bear an indelible taint of coercion by association with the schools past prayer practicessome of which predated Mr. Kennedy, and all of which the District concedes he ended on request. Santa Fe Independent School District The Court, however, has long recognized that these two Clauses, while express[ing] complementary values, often exert conflicting pressures. Cutter, 544 U.S., at 719. He did not speak pursuant to government policy and was not seeking to convey a government-created message. How will school administrators exercise their responsibilities to manage school curriculum and events when the Court appears to elevate individuals rights to religious exercise above all else? Mr. Kennedy prayed during a period when school employees were free to speak with a friend, call for a reservation at a restaurant, check email, or attend to other personal matters. . Pa. 2005) was the first direct challenge brought in the United States federal courts testing a public school district policy that required the teaching of intelligent design, ultimately found by the court to not be science. In this case, the Districts challenged policies were neither neutral nor generally applicable. As the majority tells it, Kennedy, a coach for the Districts football program, lost his job for pray[ing] quietly while his students were otherwise occupied. Ante, at 1. 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