Friend:

Another dizzying week on the national and world stage saw a torrent of grand deceptions designed to achieve predetermined political agendas.

Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a jaw-dropping speech that rewrote history and defied civilized norms to justify invading Ukraine and invalidating its right to nationhood. The invasion of a democratic nation by its authoritarian neighbor reminds us of how powerful anti-democratic forces are around the world, and even here in the U.S.

On a smaller scale but far closer to home and our work at AU, on Wednesday, the attorneys for the former football coach in our Kennedy v. Bremerton School District case filed their Supreme Court brief, which continues pushing a false narrative about what really happened in Bremerton. Coach Kennedy’s lawyers claim that he just wants to pray quietly by himself, but the lower courts found this to be false—and one judge even called it a “deceitful narrative” spun by the opposition.

The facts in this case are clear: A coach violated the religious freedom of students by pressuring them to join his public prayers at the 50-yard line at public high school football games. But a shadow network of religious extremists and their political allies is distorting those facts and using this case to advance their agenda.

We’re on very dangerous ground if the Supreme Court is considering overturning decades of established law that ensures government employees cannot pressure students to pray in public schools. It would be a radical departure from the accepted religious freedom protections supported by both conservative and liberal Justices for decades.

Also, this week, the Court signaled it was prepared to strike another blow against everyone’s fundamental right to be treated equally under the law. The Justices have agreed to hear a case brought by Alliance Defending Freedom—part of the shadow network supporting Kennedy’s case. ADF represents a Colorado website designer who refuses to design wedding sites for same-sex couples because of her religious beliefs. She also wants to post a statement on her business’s website touting her discrimination. Both run afoul of Colorado anti-discrimination law.

The Court isn't going to address whether the constitutional right to religious freedom can be misused to empower a business owner with the right to discriminate, however. Rather, it is looking at the issue through the lens of free speech. As a result, the Court could hand down a narrow ruling that affects just this type of business and leaves many questions unanswered—including whether it will allow religious freedom to be redefined as a sword to harm others, rather than a shield that protects all of us. But the narrowness of the issue that the Court will consider in this case, 303 Creative v. Elenis, should not obscure for anyone the long-term goals of ultraconservative justices on the Court to elevate the privileges of religious organizations above all other rights and laws.

In our brief to the Court in the Bremerton case in just under a month, as well as in our media appearances, on social media and while organizing our allies, we’ll be emphasizing that for the Court to accept these kinds of deceptive narratives would erode a core principle of our democracy. We know our nation’s foundational principle of church-state separation is what protects religious freedom for all of us. We also know that the power and dignity of truth—along with your principled support—are on our side.

With hope and gratitude,

Rachel K. Laser
President and CEO

P.S. There was some light right at the end of a hard week: President Biden nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, an eminently qualified jurist, to be the first Black woman justice in our nation’s history. Though Judge Jackson does not yet have an extensive record on church-state separation, we’re hopeful she will distinguish herself as a champion for religious freedom on the Court.