The U.S. Supreme Court protected the religious rights of government employees by ruling in favor of a Christian former public high school football coach in Washington state who sued after being suspended from his job for refusing to stop leading prayers with players on the field after games.
The ruling, written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, rejected the local school district's concerns that in a public-school setting Kennedy's prayers and Christian-infused speeches could be seen as coercive to students or a governmental endorsement of a particular religion in violation of what is known as the establishment clause of the First Amendment. The Supreme Court held that Kennedy's actions were protected by his own rights under the First Amendment, which protects free speech and religious expression. "Respect for religious expressions is indispensable to life in a free and diverse republic - whether those expressions take place in a sanctuary or on a field, and whether they manifest through the spoken word or a bowed head," Gorsuch wrote. The First Amendment states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Again, if people would only read their history and understand why this amendment was so important we would not have these foolish rulings such as the lower court and the minority wanted. Pre-American Revolution there were established religions in the colonies. That means that specific colonies supported specific churches out of the taxes collected by the colonies from all. The First Amendment specifically prohibited the United States Government from doing the same. Virginia, New York, Maryland, North Carolina, and South Carolina had the Anglican Church of England as their established religion. Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Connecticut had the Congregational Church while Delaware, Rhode Island, Georgia, and Pennsylvania had none. The First Amendment said the Federal Government would have to follow the example of the latter four. The Supreme Court did not establish any religion in this ruling. The Supreme Court did not say anybody had to practice a specific religion, nor did that a specific religion must become government supported. The Supreme Court stated that the coach had the Constitutional right to practice the religion of his choice and his players had the right to do the same. The Supreme Court ruled for individual freedom while the dissenters are mandating that the religion of secularism be the established religion of the land while mandating restrictions on the practice of another. Once again, the Supreme Court did exactly what it is mandated to do by the Constitution and that is to render opinions on the Constitutionality of actions; that is no establishment and freedom to worship freely.
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