PRESS RELEASE: DFI, Betsy DeVos Join Fight to Protect Public School Coach’s Right to Pray

WASHINGTON—The Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies joined forces with former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to fight for a public school employee’s First Amendment right to silent prayer in a case that’s before the U.S. Supreme Court.

In Kennedy v Bremerton School District, the Court will decide if the Ninth Circuit erred in its ruling that Coach Joe Kennedy’s silent prayers after high school football games somehow violated the First Amendment.

“It’s unbelievable this case even has to be heard at the Supreme Court,” said former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. “If a teacher or coach can’t silently pray while employed at a public school, what is left of the First Amendment for them?  The idea that the ‘separation of church and state’ is some sort of invitation for the government to forcefully separate people from their faith is appalling. The Court has been right on this in the past, and I hope they strongly affirm it again: No one must be forced to ‘shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.’”

You can read the DeVos/DFI amicus brief defending the coach’s right to pray here.

Coach Kennedy’s battle to protect his First Amendment right to silently pray in public began while he was a football coach at Bremerton High School in Bremerton, Washington.  After each game, the coach would wait until the players left the field, take a knee, and pray silently.  After years of engaging in this practice, the Bremerton School District sent a letter to Coach Kennedy in 2015 instructing to him cease all “demonstrative religious activity” within view of any student or the public, either silently or audibly.  Refusing to abandon his faith and relinquish his First Amendment right, Coach Kennedy continued to pray silently after each game. Within months, Bremerton School District suspended Coach Kennedy and refused to renew his contract.  

“DFI is proud to stand with Coach Kennedy and fight back against this notion that public school employees relinquish their freedom to worship when they enter the schoolhouse door,” said DFI co-founder and President Robert S. Eitel. “By the Ninth Circuit’s flawed logic and misunderstanding of the jurisprudence, a teacher would no longer be allowed to bow her head in the cafeteria to silently give thanks before a meal in the presence of other teachers and students.  The Ninth Circuit’s decision defies the Federal Constitution and simply cannot withstand thoughtful judicial scrutiny. DFI will vigorously defend the First Amendment rights of public school employees.”  

Secretary DeVos is a leading advocate for education reform in America and a staunch defender of rights guaranteed by the First Amendment to both students and school employees.  She has been a long-time advocate for and defender of religious liberty, particularly in the educational context.  During her tenure as Secretary, for example, she published “Updated Guidance on Constitutionally Protected Prayer and Religious Expression in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools,” school prayer guidance required by Congress that had been left dormant and stale by prior administrations since 2003. She is a pioneer in efforts to ensure the protection of students’ and teachers’ religious freedom across the country. 

DFI is a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)(3) institute dedicated to defending freedom and opportunity for every American family, student, entrepreneur, and worker, as well as to protecting their constitutional and civil rights at school and in the workplace. DFI promotes policies that foster open, diverse, and intellectually engaging public schools fully compliant with the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. DFI places a particular focus on defending persons who suffer an infringement of their First Amendment rights to protected speech and protected religious exercise in public schools.

To read the amicus brief, click here.