Posted on 04/15/2008 9:12:32 PM PDT by Coleus
The East Brunswick school board was within its rights to tell a football coach he cannot kneel and bow his head as members of his team have a student-led pre-game prayer, a federal appeals court ruled today. The ruling from the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia reversed a lower-court ruling made almost two years ago. All three members of the three-judge panel wrote their own opinions on the issue, which pits the right to free speech against the freedom from official establishment of a religion.
The judges agreed the East Brunswick Board of Education's policy barring school staff from joining in student-led was constitutional. But the judges differed on what exactly a coach should do when his team prays. From the time Marcus Borden became the Bears' coach in 1983, he was deeply involved in team prayers; for a time, he even led them. In 2005, school officials received complaints that he was leading prayers and asked him to stop participating. He sued the school board seeking to be allowed to bow his head and kneel when students led their own prayers. A lower-court judge found that should be allowed.
The East Brunswick Board of Education appealed Cavanaugh's ruling, saying that by taking a knee and bowing his head, Borden was endorsing religion whether he mouthed the words with his players or not. The appeal was taken over by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington, D.C., group that opposes prayer in schools. "We find that based on the history of Borden's conduct with the team's players, his acts cross the line and constitute an unconstitutional endorsement of religion," the judges wrote in the ruling.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
so much for freedom of religion. the government is telling individuals how to pray.
.
This country gets sicker with each passing day.
Shame on the school officials and the court. Each one of you should lose your jobs over this.
Keep praying , Coach.
Those judges are absolutely insane. Run them out of office by any means necessary.
This ruling is sickening. I am glad our founding fathers don’t have to see what we have come to.
So let me get this straight. A moronic “judge” has told an American that he is not allowed to pray in public? Welcome to Amerika! Where the First Amendment only applies to loudmouth, protesting DemocRATS, their toadies in the Liberal “media” and porn pimps. (Sorry for the redundancy at the end there).
Judicial activism at its finest.
Alliance for the Separation of School & State
http://www.schoolandstate.org/home.htm
It isn’t Congress making a law forbidding the coach from praying, so the school can get away with this crap.
The First Amendment actually states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exersize thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech . . ."
In other words, the First Amendment probits the Congress from interfering with the establishment of any recognized religion, and cannot prevent people from exersizing their religious beliefs. Unfortunately, thanks to the liberal idiots in this country, the First Amendment has been bastardized by the liberal idiotic judges into something they can use against people who believe in God and Christ.
But TIZA in MN can teach Islam and hold prayers but no one will stand up to CAIR. Disgurting cowards.
Can’t bow his head? Just tell these commies he was checking to see if the players all had their shoes tied.
Kneeling? Still looking for that contact lens he lost last year.
In ‘85 and ‘86, as a team, we said the I Prayer before every game!
“I Prayer” = Lords Prayer. oops
And the muslims are pushing for prayer times, prayer rooms, special everything to accommodate their religious beliefs and we just bend over for them.
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