Friend:

I have never been more proud or more honored to lead Americans United than I was on Monday at the U.S. Supreme Court. A broad and diverse coalition of faith leaders and religious freedom advocates, students, allies, and even a member of Congress gathered to demonstrate their dedication to church-state separation as we argued our case, Kennedy v. Bremerton School District. As I said in my speech, we were there “as Americans, united, defending the separation of religion and government, fighting the shadowy network aiming to tear down a core pillar of our democracy.”

The day began early on the Supreme Court steps with our well-attended press conference. U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, five members of clergy from the Bremerton community and AU board member Ouida Brown, who is general counsel for the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, joined me to speak in defense of students’ religious freedom.

All of the Bremerton faith leaders who flew from Washington State to Washington, D.C., were there in support of our client, the school district, and not the football coach seeking the right to have coercive prayers with public school students on the 50-yard line after games. They spoke with passion and conviction and their words were all the more poignant because of the silence from the other side. There was no rally for the coach, no clergy or supporters willing to travel across the country to stand at his side. It was just the coach and his lawyers.

I hope you’ll watch the press conference (you can find it on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube) to hear the inspiring words of the Revs. Avilesbernal, Dowling, Kingslight and Reffner and Student Rabbi Katcher—they beautifully articulate that church-state separation is not anti-religious; indeed, it protects religious freedom for all of us.

We then gathered at a nearby church to listen to the audio feed of AU Vice President and Legal Director Richard Katskee skillfully arguing in defense of the school district. Richard was exactly the advocate we needed for the job—and he was more than up to the task. (You can listen to a recording of the arguments here.)

But we knew he faced an uphill battle. There was a lot of discussion of the various legal tests—discussion that obscured the realities of this case in a way that harms the Constitution and the rule of law. The undisputed facts show that students felt pressured by an agent of the state to pray. Richard drove that reality home time and again. The coach’s conduct violated each and every one of the tests discussed. Some of the Justices may buy into the “deceitful narrative” the other side has been spinning, but it would be shameful if the outcome of this critical case is dictated by that deceitful narrative rather than reality. Alternative facts have no place in a court of law.

In the courtroom, Richard also excelled at centering the students. The religious freedom of every public school student and family in the country hangs in the balance. And Richard didn’t let the Justices forget that.

We’re on very dangerous ground if the Court is considering overturning decades of established law that prevents teachers and coaches from pressuring students to pray in public schools. But whatever happens when the Court issues its decision in a few months, I am bolstered by the support for church-state separation from you and all of our supporters. It takes a village to raise a child, the saying goes, and it will take a village to protect our children from religious coercion in public schools. I’m proud to know that together we have built that village. We have more work to do together, but we are up to the task.

Onward,

Rachel K. Laser
President and CEO