最高法院周一表示，政教分离并不禁止公立学校员工工作时大声祈祷附近的学生。

这案件涉及一名高中足球教练赛后在50码线祈祷，和他的球员一起。

尼尔·戈萨奇法官撰写了这份意见书。投票结果是6比3。

“第一修正案的自由行使和言论自由条款都保护像肯尼迪先生这样的言论，”戈萨奇写道。正确理解修正案的建立条款也不要求政府挑出私人宗教言论给予特别的不赞成。宪法和我们最好的传统主张相互尊重和容忍，而不是审查和压制，对宗教和非宗教观点都一样。”

索尼娅·索托马约尔法官持反对意见，斯蒂芬·布雷耶法官和埃琳娜·卡根法官也持反对意见。

在她的异议中，索托马约尔介绍说，该案是“关于公立学校是否必须允许学校官员在学校活动的中心跪下，低头，祈祷，”并写道，“宪法没有授权，更不用说要求公立学校接受这种行为。”

她表示，自由行使条款是“我们政府的承诺”，而建立条款是“使我们政府无法违反它的后盾”，并“让我们回到过去，那时(自由行使的权利)经常被剥夺。”

“它将个人在个人选择的确切时间和地点进行宗教活动的兴趣，提升到了保护政教分离的社会利益之上，削弱了对所有人宗教自由的保护，”她写道。

首席大法官约翰·罗伯茨、大法官克拉伦斯·托马斯、塞缪尔·阿利托和艾米·科尼·巴雷特全部加入了多数意见，大法官布雷特·卡瓦诺加入了大部分意见。

肯尼迪诉布雷默顿学区(Kennedy v . Bremerton School District)的裁决是前高中足球教练乔·肯尼迪(Joe Kennedy)的胜利，他在2015年因赛后在50码线上祈祷而被停职，有时他的球员也会参与其中。

肯尼迪在周一的一份声明中说:“这真是太棒了。”。“我一直想要的就是回到球场上和我的队友们在一起。我非常感谢最高法院、我出色的法律团队以及所有支持我们的人。我感谢上帝回应我们的祈祷，并在这场漫长的战斗中支持我的家人。”

肯尼迪坚持认为中场祈祷是简短的、私人的个人信仰行为，而学区认为学生的参与违反了宪法禁止政府官员宣传宗教的规定。

“这是我和上帝之间的契约，每场比赛结束后，无论输赢，我都会在战场上这样做，”肯尼迪此前告诉ABC新闻，他说他的仪式通常持续不到一分钟。

“这是每个人的权利。不管你是这个宗教还是那个宗教，或者没有任何信仰，”他说。"在美国，每个人都有同样的权利。"

华盛顿州的学区在一份声明中回应了这一裁决，称“鉴于法院的决定，我们将与我们的律师合作，以确保布雷默顿学区对所有学生、他们的家人和我们的员工仍然是一个热情、包容的环境。

“布雷默顿学区的首要任务一直是保护学生的权利和安全，同时确保他们接受模范教育。这就是为什么，当我们得知一名地区雇员带领学生祈祷时，我们遵守法律，采取行动保护所有学生及其家人的宗教自由，”它说。“我们期待着摆脱这场长达7年的法律战的干扰，以便我们的学校社区能够专注于最重要的事情:为我们的孩子提供尽可能最好的教育。”

下级法院支持学区。法律专家说，最高法院做出的有利于肯尼迪的裁决可能很快会扩大全国政府雇员在工作时更加公开地实践自己信仰的能力。

第一修正案保护言论自由和宗教信仰自由，但也禁止政府建立宗教。

最高法院长期以来一直表示，公立学校赞助的祈祷违反了建立条款，即使祈祷是自愿的。

与此同时，法院裁定，言论自由权并不仅限于学校门口，宗教不需要完全从公立学校中删除。

七年多来，肯尼迪经常在比赛结束后在球场上祈祷，吸引了不同程度的学生参与，直到2015年，学区才将宪法问题告知教练。

“他们只是说，如果有人能在这里的任何地方看到你，那就完了，”肯尼迪说。

学区当时在一份声明中解释说，祈祷违反了“宪法规定的指令，即他在执勤时不得在足球场上进行公开的公共宗教表演。”

一些家长抱怨说，祈祷会对学生施加了不适当的压力，要求他们参与，即使不是有意的。

“教练是领导者。教练是导师。如果他走到50码线，他有一个他想传递的信息，所以球员们会跟着走，”布雷默顿的父母保罗·彼得森说，他的儿子亚伦曾在2010年为肯尼迪教练效力。

“伤害是对那些少数民族学生，少数民族信仰，没有信仰的学生，”他说。“他们被迫做一些他们根本不同意的事情。这是第一修正案保护我们免受的。”

一家联邦上诉法院称肯尼迪对他的祈祷的描述是简短、安静和孤独的，是一种“欺骗性的叙述”，指出他们是被学生群体包围的清晰可闻的祈祷，相当于“一名学校官员”的非法宗教言论。

肯尼迪的案件受到了共和党高层的欢呼，包括前总统唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)、数十名州和联邦议员，以及柯克·考辛斯(Kirk Cousins)和尼克·福尔斯(Nick Foles)等NFL明星四分卫，他们在一份法庭之友文件中告诉大法官，祈祷的力量促进了良好的体育精神。

该学区在法庭文件中得到了其他职业运动员、国会议员、民权团体、教师工会和包括美国市长会议在内的地方政府团体的广泛支持。

肯尼迪目前住在佛罗里达州，但他告诉法庭，如果法官做出有利于他的裁决，他将搬回布雷默顿继续执教。

Supreme Court sides with coach in public school prayer case

The Supreme Court on Monday said separation of church and state does not prohibit public school employees frompraying aloud on the jobnear students.

Thecase involved a high school football coachpraying post-game at the 50-yard line, joined by his players.

Justice Neil Gorsuch authored the opinion. The vote was 6-3.

"Both the Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses of the First Amendment protect expressions like Mr. Kennedy's," Gorsuch wrote. "Nor does a proper understanding of the Amendment's Establishment Clause require the government to single out private religious speech for special disfavor. The Constitution and the best of our traditions counsel mutual respect and tolerance, not censorship and suppression, for religious and nonreligious views alike."

Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented, joined by Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan.

In her dissent, Sotomayor introduced the case as being "about whether a public school must permit a school official to kneel, bow his head, and say a prayer at the center of a school event," and wrote, "The Constitution does not authorize, let alone require, public schools to embrace this conduct."

She said the free exercise clause serves as "a promise from our government" while the establishment clause serves as a "backstop that disables our government from breaking it" and "start[ing] us down the path to the past, when [the right to free exercise] was routinely abridged."

"It elevates one individual’s interest in personal religious exercise, in the exact time and place of that individual’s choosing, over society’s interest in protecting the separation between church and state, eroding the protections for religious liberty for all," she wrote.

Chief Justice John Roberts, Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Amy Coney Barrett joined the majority opinion in its entirety, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined for the most part.

The ruling in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District is a win for former high school football coach Joe Kennedy, who was suspended from his job in 2015 over post-game prayers on the 50-yard line that sometimes involved his players.

“This is just so awesome," Kennedy said in a statement Monday. "All I’ve ever wanted was to be back on the field with my guys. I am incredibly grateful to the Supreme Court, my fantastic legal team, and everyone who has supported us. I thank God for answering our prayers and sustaining my family through this long battle.”

Kennedy insisted the midfield prayers were brief, private individual acts of faith, while the school district argued that student participation breached constitutional prohibitions against the promotion of religion by government officials.

"It was my covenant between me and God that after every game, win or lose, I'm going to do it right there on the field of battle," Kennedy previously told ABC News of his ritual, which he said typically lasted less than a minute.

"This is a right for everybody. It doesn't matter if you're this religion or that religion or have no faith whatsoever," he said. "Everybody has the same rights in America."

The school district in Washington state responded to the ruling in a statement, saying, "In light of the court’s decision, we will work with our attorneys to make certain that the Bremerton School District remains a welcoming, inclusive environment for all students, their families and our staff.

"The Bremerton School District’s priorities have always been protecting the rights and safety of students while ensuring that they receive an exemplary education. That’s why, when we learned that a district employee was leading students in prayer, we followed the law and acted to protect the religious freedom of all students and their families," it said. "We look forward to moving past the distraction of this 7-year legal battle so that our school community can focus on what matters most: providing our children the best education possible."

Lower courts had sided with the school district. A Supreme Court reversal in favor of Kennedy could soon expand the ability of government employees nationwide to practice their faiths more openly while on the job, legal experts say.

The First Amendment protects free speech and free exercise of religion, but it also prohibits the establishment of religion by the government.

The Supreme Court has long said that public school-sponsored prayer violates the Establishment Clause, even if the prayer is voluntary.

At the same time, the court has ruled that free speech rights don't end at the schoolhouse gate and that religion need not be entirely expunged from public schools.

While Kennedy routinely prayed on the field after games for more than seven years, attracting varying levels of participation from students, it wasn't until 2015 that the school district informed the coach of constitutional concerns.

"They just said if anybody could see you anywhere here, it was over," Kennedy said.

The school district explained at the time in a statement that the prayers violated "constitutionally-required directives that he refrain from engaging in overt, public religious displays on the football field while on duty."

Some parents complained that the prayer sessions were applying inappropriate pressure on students to participate, even if unintended.

"The coach is a leader. The coach is a mentor. If he goes to the 50-yard line, he has a message he wants to deliver, and so the players would follow," said Bremerton parent Paul Peterson, whose son Aaron played for coach Kennedy in 2010.

"The harm is to those who are the minority students, the minority faiths, the students who have no faith," he said. "They are being pressured into doing something that they don't fundamentally agree with. That's what the First Amendment protects us from."

A federal appeals court called Kennedy's characterization of his prayers as brief, quiet and solitary as a "deceitful narrative," noting that they were clearly audible prayers surrounded by groups of students, amounting to unlawful religious speech as "a school official."

Kennedy's case has been cheered on by top Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, dozens of state and federal lawmakers, and star NFL quarterbacks, like Kirk Cousins and Nick Foles, who told the justices in a friend-of-the-court filing that the power of prayer promotes good sportsmanship.

The school district has had broad backing in court filings from other professional athletes, members of Congress, civil rights groups, teachers' unions, and local government groups, including the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Kennedy currently lives in Florida but told the court that he would move back to Bremerton to return to coaching, if the justices ruled in his favor.