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. The attorney for the coach plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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.
