While a disgusting display of religious intolerance, this is nothing new. The left has long sought to use the establishment clause of the first amendment to push the nation that the government should, in the words of Justice Gorsuch, “ferret out and suppress religious observances” in any government context.
However, Gorsuch wrote that “Kennedy’s private religious exercise did not come close to crossing any line one might imagine separating protected private expression from impermissible government coercion.”
He continues: “Learning how to tolerate speech or prayer of all kinds is part of learning how to live in a pluralistic society, a trait of character essential to a tolerant citizenry.”
Justice Gorsuch even hammers the School District for fabricating reasons why they needed to suppress Coach Kennedy’s free exercise, quoting strong precedent to do so — Government “justification[s]” for interfering with First Amendment rights must be genuine, not hypothesized or invented post hoc in response to litigation. Nor under our Constitution does protected speech or religious exercise readily give way to a “heckler’s veto.”
This case is of crucial importance to government employees around the country, who have been told by an increasingly loud minority of radical secularists that they must check their 1st amendment freedoms at the door of their job.
This ruling plants a flag in the sand against this intolerant view, sets a strong precedent defending free exercise, and ensures that our teachers, coaches, and many others are not relegated to second-class citizenship by those who would have every mention of God or morality expunged from our society.
We applaud the Supreme court for this ruling, and we will continue to fight here in Georgia to defend the religious freedom that is at the bedrock of our nation.
