Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer demanded that Justice Clarence Thomas should not be involved in the 2020 election. This article is part of HuffPost's politics newsletter. If the conservatives on the Supreme Court weren't busy enough rolling back abortion rights, scrutinizing century-old gun restrictions, and undermining the federal government's power to slow climate change, they may also be about to strike yet another blow at the separation between church. The justices heard oral arguments this week in a case about a Washington state high school football coach who led post-game prayers at the 50-yard-line. The prayers amounted to a form of religious expression. They told the coach that he needed to pray alone and away from the field, and offered to make arrangements for that. Kennedy said the officials were violating his right to practice his faith in a private way. He sued because he held the prayers anyway. The stakes are high. Even a narrow ruling in favor of the coach could change the rules on school prayer, allowing for more overt and more public displays of faith on school grounds. It would be a major victory for the Christian religious right, which has spent decades trying to get religious prayer back in schools. One concern about such a ruling is that it could put pressure on students who don't share the majority of their community's religious beliefs, not to mention those who aren't religious or don't appreciate the government getting in the middle of religion. This concern is not hypothetical. Joe Kennedy was an assistant football coach at the time of his legal case. Kennedy was terminated from his job in 2015 after he refused to stop praying after football games. The photo was taken by Win McNamee. Over the course of several years, the saga in Bremerton turned into a media and political spectacle. According to a brief that the district's lawyers filed, one parent told school district officials that their son felt compelled to participate because he thought it was necessary to secure playing time. It is not clear how many students felt that way. It could have been a few or just one. The Supreme Court strengthened prohibitions on religious activity in schools after banning teacher-led prayer in 1962, because they believed that putting pressure on just one student was too much. During oral arguments, Justice Elena Kagan said that what our cases have long cared about in thinking about these questions is the fact that students feel like they have to join religious activities they don't want to join. Obama appointed Kagan, a liberal. She doesn't speak for the six conservative justices that Republican presidents put on the bench. In the past, conservative justices have taken a different approach to church-state cases, one that sees the rights of religious Americans as under attack and in need of special protection. Consider a 2020 case about temporary restrictions on public gatherings in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The justices ruled that the restrictions effectively punished the practice of religion, even though the limits on public gathering applied to a wide variety of settings and didn't single out religious gatherings for special treatment. The impulse to protect the religious from attack may sound familiar because it's a piece of a broader argument that conservatives make all the time. It's also a little ironic that the religious conservatives who feel so unpopular have six conservative Supreme Court justices on their side, and possibly, poised to hand them a big victory in the school prayer case. It doesn't mean victory for the coach and his allies is guaranteed. It is possible for the case to be sent back to the lower courts to sort out factual disputes. The smart money is still on a decision that would weaken the wall between church and state, even though it was already starting to weaken. The article was originally on HuffPost. Readers commented on local housing plans and banned textbooks. The battle to get testimony from MarkMeadows sheds new light on how the Trump campaign weighed in on the Georgia election audit as they were largely ignored by the state's secretary of state. Cassidy Hutchinson was a former special assistant to the president. Do you think you can get a cheaper internet package? Maybe you should rethink. The bakery district has an economic development center. Civil rights groups and religious leaders warn that a case involving a high school football coach's mid-field prayer could threaten church and state protections. She went too far this time. Search for a backup battery. Compare online with top sales. Save money and time. In order to keep their flock in line and their scam alive, they revise their guarantees when they make prophetic promises. Gwen Shamblin, the founder and leader of the Remnant Fellowship Church, preached that being faithful to God was accomplished by maintaining a slim waist and training children to be subservient. Despite the deaths of its founder and other leaders in a plane crash, Remnant Fellowship Church will continue its mission. Ahead of the premiere of a Peacock series about his father, Jeffson spoke with Insider about his childhood in the polygamist cult. The Roman Catholic Church in Paris has a new leader five months after the previous one resigned over reports of a relationship with a woman. The archbishop of Lille is 70 years old. Aupetit resigned in December. Garfield is investigating the murder of a Mormon mother in a limited series. He says that he is going to give this time to his lord because he gave him so much over the last 11 months. Many equally delicious berries are abundant in the wild and are commonly available in grocery stores. 34 percent of American Catholic adults are Latinx. Latinx Catholics tend to be more aligned with the church than European American Catholics, as the Catholic Church still does not recognize gay marriages. A football coach praying on the field after every game is against the spirit of prayer. India and Russia should be designated by the State Department as countries of particular concern for violating religious freedoms. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said in a report that 15 countries are designated as such because of their governments. The 26 products that are helping Americans save money are selling out like hotcakes. Critics say that Kejriwal didn't speak up against harassment of Muslims. The director of the movie "Guardians of the GALAXY" is looking out for his star ChrisPratt. The plane crash that killed Gwen Shamblin is explored in the final two episodes of The Way Down. There is a Promo Code for Power Starter. Tallia is an epic champion and a starter pack to advance faster. It is never too late to join the fight. The Anti-Defamation League said there was a surge in anti-Jewish acts in May 2021. Pope Francis was forced to cancel his activities on Tuesday because of knee pain, the Vatican said. His doctors ordered him to rest and he wouldn't participate in a meeting of an international council of cardinals which advises him on Church matters, according to a statement. The latest flare-up was likely to be particularly serious, and Francis would normally be seated during such a meeting. The birthday of the 11th Panchen Lama of Tibet was on April 25 and he is still missing after being kidnapped by the Chinese government 27 years ago. The Panchen Lama is the second highest figure of religious authority in Tibetan Buddhism. The Dalai Lama began his search for the reincarnated Panchen Lama after the 10th Panchen Lama of Tibet died in 1989.
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