One of the things that brought me to Americans United was the organization’s ability to bring everyone together to defend the First Amendment – regardless of religion or lack thereof. We are more likely to win these crucial legal fights when we link arms together to oppose those who would abuse government power to impose their personal religion on others.
Americans United has built just such a coalition in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District. This Supreme Court case is about a coach who violated the religious freedom of students by pressuring them to join his prayers at the 50-yard line at public high school football games. We filed our brief last week and oral argument will be next month.
The coach is represented by a powerful legal group that is tapped into a billion-dollar shadow network that’s singing a “Siren song . . . a deceitful narrative of this case.” But the Bremerton faith community – the people who are on the ground dealing with the division the coach and his attorneys have sown – are supporting Americans United.
The Rev. Kathleen Kingslight, rector at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Bremerton, explains: “the separation of church and state is so important. It is the gift that our Constitution has given us and we don’t want it destroyed by cases like the one that we’re facing right now.”
