Football, Faith, and the First Amendment

We the People

National Constitution Center

News, News Commentary, History

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 31 January 2019

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A dispute over the firing of a high school football coach who refused to stop praying on the field after games reached the Supreme Court this term; last week, the justices said they would not hear the case until its facts were better established by lower courts. Justice Alito concurred but, joined by three other conservative justices, indicated that he might be sympathetic to Kennedy’s claim that his actions were protected by the First Amendment, should his case eventually return to the Court. Justice Alito also suggested that he and some of his colleagues may be willing to overturn Employment Division v. Smith in order to bolster free exercise and religious exemption claims under the First Amendment. Religion law experts Stephanie Barclay of BYU Law School and Richard Katskee of Americans United for Separation of Church and State discuss Coach Kennedy’s case, whether Smith should be overturned, and how such changes might affect people like public school teachers and coaches. Jeffrey Rosen hosts. Questions or comments about the podcast? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, and welcome to We The People,
0:15.0	a weekly show of constitutional debate.
0:17.6	The National Constitution Center is a nonpartisan non-profit chartered by Congress to increase awareness and understanding of the
0:24.9	Constitution among the American people. On this episode we explore the
0:29.3	Free Exercise Clause and the future of religious exemptions.
0:34.0	Last week the Supreme Court denied certiorari in a case called Kennedy versus Bremerton School
0:40.2	Districts and that was a case brought by Joseph Kennedy who's a high school
0:43.6	football coach who was fired when he refused to stop praying at the 50-yard
0:47.8	line. After games, Justice Samuel Alito wrote a really interesting concurring opinion
0:53.2	in the cert denial in which he suggested
0:55.9	he and other justices might be open to overturning a case
0:59.4	called Employment Division v. Smith,
1:01.4	which will explore in detail on this podcast.
1:04.8	And joining us to cast light on this crucially important question of the future of religious
1:10.3	exemptions under the Free Exercise Clause, are two of America's leading experts in the Constitution and the First Amendment religion clauses.
1:18.0	Stephanie Barclay is associate professor at BYU Law School, where she teaches the First Amendment, and she is of counsel at the Beckett Fund, an organization dedicated to defending the free exercise of religion.
1:30.0	She's litigated many free exercise cases at the trial and appellate level.
1:34.3	Stephanie, thank you so much for joining.
1:36.2	Thanks so much for having me, Jeff.
1:38.2	And Richard Katsky is the legal director at Americans United for the
1:42.0	separation of church and state where he litigates First
1:44.7	Amendment Establishment Clause, Free Exercise Clause, and Free Speech Cases.
	...

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