On June 27th, 2022 the Supreme Court, in Kennedy v. Bremerton, undermined the religious freedom of public school students by allowing a football coach to pray on the 50 yard line immediately after games. When teachers and coaches pray, students feel pressured to join in. We believe that no student should ever feel like they must pray in order to play public sports, and no student should feel excluded because they do not share the same religious beliefs as their teachers and coaches. 

Public schools should be open, welcoming, inclusive environments for all students, regardless of faith or belief, and this decision makes America a less-free nation. Public school students are now at risk of being pressured to take part in religious activity against their will and this ruling puts even more power into the hands of an already privileged Christian nationalist majority. This decision also comes alongside other devastating losses of our constitutional rights including reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ rights, voting rights, and public education.

MFSA joined 34 other religious organizations in an amicus brief to the Supreme Court expressing our support for Bremerton School District in “defending its students rights to follow their own consciences and pray according to their own religious beliefs.”

Though the Supreme Court decision was devastating, we believe our advocacy helped make the case for religious freedom in public schools, and Justice Sotomayer, on page 3 of the dissent, even cited the amicus brief MFSA signed.