Joe Kennedy lost his high school football coaching job. Did he engage in any untoward behavior with any of his students? Not at all.
All he did was pray for a few minutes after each of his football games, on the 50-yard line. He did so quietly, and did not entice any of his students to follow his practice.
The argument of the school board was that students might try to curry favor with Coach Kennedy by joining him on these occasions. If so, they might as well prohibit this football coach from praying in church on a Sunday, since his football players might try to curry favor with him by joining him there. If he had taken a knee to protest racism, the school board would not likely have fired him.
When he declined to cease his public prayers, and the Bremerton, Washington School District declined to renew his contract, he sued to get his job back. The lower courts all ruled against him and his case was heard by the Supreme Court in April.
An ex-Marine, this is just the sort of person all men of goodwill would wish as mentors for our children. In sticking to his principles, even though it cost him his job, Coach Kennedy becomes something of a hero—someone young people, and all the rest of us for that matter, should emulate.
Nevertheless, if the Supreme Court follows the Constitution, it will rule against him. There is that matter of separation of church and state that must be upheld.
One of us is an atheist. The other is a traditional Roman Catholic. We both believe that the last thing we need is for any vestige of a practice that even hints at the governmental establishment of religion, any religion.
Kennedy was a public employee, and, as such, this behavior of his, admirable as it is, crosses this line.
However, as part of its ruling, the Supreme Court should also abolish all government schools. Any institution that is legally obligated to fire an employee for acting as Coach Kennedy did does not deserve to continue.
All government schools should be converted to private ones. In that way, there’s no doubt that Kennedy, and thousands of others like him, would be able once again to take up his coaching duties and his prayers.
Right now, poor children go to school for free. If this aspect of the present system were changed, the money spent on them in government schools would instead be used to defray all of their costs in the private sector. There would be money left over, since private schools are much more cost-effective than their public counterparts.
Under which constitutional authority could the Supreme Court strike these two blows for freedom? Unhappily, there really is none. But we can dream, can we not? After all, there’s no justice when a man like Joe Kennedy has to coach football for a monopolistic institution such as a government school.
It would be nearly impossible, however, for the Supreme Court (a) to rule on a matter not brought before it by the litigants, and (b) to commandeer the state governments in an area of governance left to them by the 10th Amendment, and (c) to interfere with real property that isn’t integral to the resolution of the case before it.
The only constitutional argument we can think of is equal protection. The failure of the states to provide equal services via government schools is a federal constitutional issue; but again, it isn’t in this case.
The Supreme Court of New Jersey once shut down all government schools because they violated equal protection, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to disturb that ruling. Unfortunately, the shutdown persuaded legislators to enact a state income tax, which in their warped view, would enable the state to redistribute tax revenue and, in their view, equalize the government schools.
All state constitutions require the state to operate a school system. This has produced a grossly expensive, highly inefficient, and intellectually dangerous educational program. Government schools have guaranteed customers—the students; guaranteed income—from the taxpayers; and no effective competition. That’s a recipe for failure.
It’s also a recipe for ideological indoctrination—like, “Government is here to help you” or, “Lincoln was a great president” or, “All patriots support the nation’s wars,” and—today—“You can be any gender you want, or no gender.”
Thomas Jefferson, who wrote that our rights come from God, and James Madison, who wrote that individuals—not government—are sovereign, would not recognize government in America today. It is force without reason. It is power without restraint. And it views our rights as temporary privileges.
Why do we permit this?
