Given the nature of our third branch of government, the United States Supreme Court, the ruling is no surprise.
Before the court goes after the gay marriage, interracial marriage and a woman’s right to vote, on Monday morning it ruled in favor of the high school football coach who took a knee to pray.
As it should.
One of the details that makes America America is the right to take a knee, and peacefully express themselves for whatever the reason.
That includes taking a knee to protest the treatment of Black Americans by law enforcement or taking a knee to pray to God after a football game.
If you support Joseph Kennedy, the high school football coach in Washington state who took a knee to pray after the game, then you must support Colin Kaepernick.
Their intentions are different, but the act is the same, and it cost both of them their jobs.
In 2015, Kennedy was an assistant coach at Bremerton High near Seattle, where he routinely led a post-game prayer in which players and coaches from both teams would participate.
According to those who participated, the post-game routine was your conventional Christian prayer.
The school district said Kennedy had to stop, because it violated the separation of church and state.
Kennedy, an ex-Marine who served 20 years in the military, initially agreed and stopped. Then the First Liberty Institute reached out and wanted to fight for his cause.
The First Liberty Institute is in ... Plano, Texas, naturally.
The case took seven years, and went from Washington state to Washington, D.C., where the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 Mondahy in favor of Kennedy.
In a stunning twist, the six conservative judges voted in favor of Kennedy while the three liberal leaning judges did not.
The Kennedy decision is another example of Supreme Court judges interpreting our constitution to fit own personal beliefs, and hiding behind expensive words to make you feel better about yours.
What a great gig.
Joseph Kennedy, or any coach, leading a post-game prayer is fine, provided no player is forced to participate.
No one forced Colin Kaepnernick to take a knee and, like Kennedy, a lot of people joined him, too.
Their messages and intentions were different, but what they did is the same.
They took a knee at a football game. Their kneeling lasted anywhere between 15 seconds to 2 minutes and 15 seconds.
No one got hurt. No one was shot. No one contracted cancer. It didn’t cause inflation to rise.
One was a peaceful protest while the other is called a prayer.
For the truly cynical, one could argue what Kaepernick was doing is just as much of a prayer as Kennedy.
Would this particular court have ruled in favor of Kennedy had his post game prayer been Islamic? Would the community have supported Kennedy had his post-game prayer been Hindu?
The formal, law school professor answer to both is “No way.”
This decision is shielded as a protection of free speech, but it also is an another example of the court protecting conventional Christianity’s stronghold in America.
Alas, what Joseph Kennedy did hurt no one, and does fall under the free speech clause as outlined in the First Amendment.
He has the right to take a knee, the same as Colin Kaepernick.
As an American, you don’t have to like what either of them did, much less participate with them, but you must respect their right to do it.
