WASHINGTON (ABP) — A New Jersey high-school coach will not be able to participate in his football team’s prayers after the Supreme Court’s March 2 refusal to review a lower court’s decision.
Opponents of government-sanctioned school prayers praised the justices’ refusal to hear an appeal of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling in Borden v. East Brunswick Township School District (No. 08-482).
“A coach’s job is to teach kids how to play a sport, not promote religion,” said the Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, in a press release. “This case is a firm reminder that parents, not school personnel, are the rightful decision-makers when it comes to children’s religious upbringing.”
Lynn’s organization argued the case in the lower court on the school district's behalf.
The case began in 2005, when Marcus Borden, the coach, challenged a policy the school district enacted preventing him from participating in team prayers.
While Borden had a long history of leading the prayers or organizing them, officials in the increasingly diverse suburban district began receiving complaints from students and parents about the Christian nature of the prayers.
Borden said the policy — which prevents him from any kind of participation in the prayers, including bowing his head silently while students lead the team — violated his rights to free speech, due process and academic freedom.
Federal courts have interpreted the First Amendment to prevent public-school officials from leading or encouraging prayers with students. But they have also handed down decisions allowing prayers that are truly student-organized and student-led.
While a federal district court initially agreed with Borden, last year the 3rd Circuit overturned that decision. A three-judge panel, ruling unanimously, said the history behind Borden’s participation in the prayers made it clear that continuing any kind of association between the coach and the prayers would risk violating the First Amendment’s ban on government support for religion.
“Without Borden’s twenty-three years of organizing, participating in, and leading prayer with his team, this conclusion would not be so clear as it presently is,” that decision, written by Judge Michael Fisher, said. “We agree with Borden that bowing one’s head and taking a knee can be signs of respect. Thus, if a football coach, who had never engaged in prayer with his team, were to bow his head and take a knee while his team engaged in a moment of reflection or prayer, we would likely reach a different conclusion because the same history and context of endorsing religion would not be present.”
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Robert Marus is managing editor and Washington bureau chief for Associated Baptist Press.