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Supreme Court Sides With Coach Who Was Fired for Praying After Football Games

Fox News: The Supreme Court handed a big win to a former Washington high school football coach who lost his job over reciting a prayer on the 50-yard line after games. At issue was whether a public school employee praying alone but in view of students was engaging in unprotected “government speech,” and if it is not government speech, does it still pose a problem under the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. The Supreme Court ruled Monday in a 6-3 decision that the answer to both questions is no (Fox News). The coach responds: I’m glad I stayed in the fight (FoxNews). It marks a definitive end to the “Lemon” test: The Court has eroded the so-called Lemon test over the years, and with this decision Justice Gorsuch now pulps it as “abstract” and “ahistorical,” while chiding lower judges for citing it (WSJ). Jeremy Dys of First Liberty—who represented the coach: Now the law is, or should be, settled: Neither coaches nor teachers shed their constitutional rights when they walk through the door of a public school (World).