The case comes to the court in the midst of a sea change in the law relating to the relationship between government and religion.

Transcript

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

The U.S. Supreme Court finds itself immersed in culture wars again today. The justices will hear a high school football coach's argument that he has the right to kneel and pray on the 50-yard line at the end of games. NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg reports.

NINA TOTENBERG, BYLINE: Joseph Kennedy, a coach for the Bremerton, Wash., JV and varsity football teams, began praying with his players before and after games in 2008. At the end of a game, he'd take a knee and say a prayer at the 50-yard line, surrounded by his players and often by players from the opposing team. The practice came to the attention of school administrators in 2015, prompting the athletic director to instruct the coaching staff to stop praying with students. Kennedy did ultimately stop his locker room prayers - but on the field, not so much for just one game, he waited until the crowds had left and then returned to pray at the 50-yard line by himself. But the Marine veteran didn't like doing it that way.

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JOE KENNEDY: I fought and defended the Constitution. And the thought of leaving the field of battle where the guys just played and having to go and hide my faith because it was uncomfortable to somebody - that's just not America.

TOTENBERG: So Kennedy returned to praying on the field without fanfare and mainly at away games. Before the big homecoming game, though, the school district heard for the first time from lawyers retained by Kennedy. In a letter, they said that the coach had a constitutional right to pray on the 50-yard line at the end of the game and that students should be free to voluntarily join in. At the same time, Kennedy embraced his newfound celebrity, making repeated media appearances, as he later testified.

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KENNEDY: I was spreading the word of what was going on in Bremerton.

TOTENBERG: On the day of the homecoming game in October, things in Bremerton had gotten so tense that despite extra police at the game, the mainly pro-prayer crowd mobbed the field, knocking over some band members and cheerleaders. School Principal John Palm.

JOHN POLM: Five TV stations, Satan worshipers from Seattle - it was a zoo.

TOTENBERG: Kennedy, surrounded by TV cameras and some players, knelt to pray on the field while a state representative placed his hand on Kennedy's shoulder in support. Nathan Gillam, who'd been the head coach for 11 years when all this took place, broke down when testifying in a subsequent deposition.

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NATHAN GILLAM: I was done coaching at that point because I feared for my life. I was like, this is not worth it. I have two children. I worked very hard to make this program about the kids and make this program successful, both on the field and off the field.

TOTENBERG: The back-and-forth between Kennedy's lawyers and the school district continued, with the school district taking the position that while it wished to accommodate Kennedy's private religious expression, it could not allow his midfield postgame prayers because such a public display at a school event would be perceived as a school endorsement of religion. No good cause or bad cause, of course, goes unlitigated. Kennedy sued the school district, contending that it violated his First Amendment right to free speech and the free exercise of religion. He lost in the lower courts but appealed to the Supreme Court, where the justices will hear arguments today.

PAUL CLEMENT: I think what's at stake here is really the ability of teachers and coaches to engage in religious exercise while on duty.

TOTENBERG: Paul Clement is representing Coach Kennedy in the Supreme Court.

CLEMENT: I think it's kind of established beyond doubt at this point that students are allowed to engage in a degree of religious exercise on school grounds. And I think where this case will clarify the law is whether teachers and coaches have comparable rights to the students.

TOTENBERG: But the lawyer for the school board, Richard Katskee, counters that what Coach Kennedy did wasn't really private speech.

RICHARD KATSKEE: He wasn't just on school grounds because he's a school employee. He was at the center of the field at an event that the school district hires coaches to run. He insisted that he be surrounded by students, and he was delivering a prayer that they could hear. To call that personal and private just doesn't make any sense.

TOTENBERG: Clement, however, compares Kennedy's midfield prayers to a teacher crossing herself in the cafeteria before eating lunch.

CLEMENT: There might be a couple of students that share her religion that decide they want to join along. And there could even be a student or two that feels a little pressure to join along. But I think all of that is something that you need to allow as long as there isn't any coercion, which makes it a different matter.

TOTENBERG: But Purdue University professor Frank Lambert, a former Pittsburgh Steelers football kicker, disagrees. He filed a brief in the case, along with a dozen other former athletes. They say that high school players are presented with a dilemma when a coach prays at the 50-yard line after a game.

FRANK LAMBERT: If I do not participate, I risk demonstrating that perhaps I'm not a team player. Or - and this is, I think, an important point - an individual may look over at who's in that crowd, and they may see a teammate who is vying for playing time at the same position that he is. I better go over there. I do not want to give an advantage.

TOTENBERG: Clement counters that what the school here wanted was to require Coach Kennedy to pray in a place where he wasn't visible to students.

CLEMENT: And that seems to us to send a message of hostility to religion. Like, this is something almost shameful that you have to go do in a private booth.

TOTENBERG: The school district sees things very differently. Again, Richard Katskee.

KATSKEE: The problem here was this was never personal or private or solitary or any of those other adjectives that Mr. Kennedy's lawyers describe. He chose to put himself in the center of the field at the end of the game to make a spectacle.

TOTENBERG: Coach Kennedy's case comes to the Supreme Court at a time when the conservative majority has dramatically changed the emphasis in cases involving accommodation of religion. For well over a half century, the court has outlawed officially sponsored prayer in public schools, emphasizing the First Amendment ban on any state establishment of religion. But in recent times, the court has instead emphasized the Constitution's guarantee to the free exercise of religion. So is this case a camel's nose in the tent that could lead eventually to overturning the 60-year-old decision banning official prayer in public schools? The school district's lawyer thinks it is, but Coach Kennedy's lawyer, Paul Clement, has a different view.

CLEMENT: No, it's really not. Those cases may come down the pike, but this is not those cases.

TOTENBERG: A decision in this case is expected by the end of June.

Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington.

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