The Man Who Stopped School Prayer—And Was Nearly Forgotten

 https://www.youtube.com/shorts/76msLidAEFo

 

Texas AG Ken Paxton pushes for Christian prayer in public schools - The Washington Post

"In Texas classrooms, we want the Word of God opened, the Ten Commandments displayed, and prayers lifted up," Paxton said in a news release on his office's letterhead. "Our nation was founded on the rock of Biblical Truth, and I will not stand by while the far-left attempts to push our country into the sinking sand."…

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/09/04/ken-paxton-texas-school-prayer/

A new challenge for schools and teachers: school prayer | The Hill

…when and where prayer can happen on public school grounds…

https://thehill.com/opinion/congress-blog/3614778-a-new-challenge-for-schools-and-teachers-school-prayer/

Opinion | The Supreme Court decision about the praying football coach was wrong - The Washington Post

"Today's decision is particularly misguided," Sotomayor wrote, "because it elevates the religious rights of a school official, who voluntarily accepted public employment and the limits that public employment entails, over those of his students, who are required to attend school and who this Court has long recognized are particularly vulnerable and deserving of protection."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/03/scotus-praying-football-coach-wrong/

Justice Neil Gorsuch’s Radical Reinterpretation of the First Amendment | The New Yorker

His opinion in the case of a public-high-school football coach who led prayers on the fifty-yard line privileges religious speech.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/justice-neil-gorsuchs-radical-reinterpretation-of-the-first-amendment

Activist Asks To Lead Satanic Prayer At FL High School Football Game | Miami, FL Patch

After the Supreme Court sided with a high school football coach who prayed on the field, activist wants to lead Satanic prayer at a FL game...

https://patch.com/florida/miami/activist-asks-lead-satanic-prayer-fl-high-school-football-game

Alarm as US supreme court takes a hatchet to church-state separation

"The court pandered to a religious extremist agenda and implemented it by forcing one set of religious views on all of us and taking away the right of a woman to do with her body what her religious and moral views dictate, or taking away the right of a Maine taxpayer to not fund the teaching of a religion or religious discrimination that they disagree with, or taking away the right of a Jewish or Muslim or an atheist or a Buddhist public school student not to feel pressured to pray to play and be included in public school."…

https://www.theguardian.com/law/2022/jul/02/us-supreme-court-religion-church-state-separation

The Supreme Court’s “praying coach” decision rests on a bed of lies - Vox

…Moreover, because Gorsuch's opinion relies so heavily on false facts, the Court does not actually decide what the Constitution has to say about a coach who ostentatiously prays in the presence of students and the public. Instead, it decides a fabricated case about a coach who merely engaged in "private" and "quiet" prayer…

https://www.vox.com/2022/6/27/23184848/supreme-court-kennedy-bremerton-school-football-coach-prayer-neil-gorsuch

Sotomayor: SCOTUS Decision Backing Coach Prayer 'Misconstrues the Facts'

…In his opinion, Gorsuch wrote that the coach, Joe Kennedy, led a "quiet, personal prayer." But in her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said Kennedy's prayers weren't as minor as the court's opinion claimed. 

 "The record reveals that Kennedy had a longstanding practice of conducting demonstrative prayers on the 50-yard line of the football field. Kennedy consistently invited others to join his prayers and for years led student athletes in prayer at the same time and location," Sotomayor wrote. "The Court ignores this history."…

https://www.businessinsider.com/sotomayor-supreme-court-decision-backing-coach-prayer-misconstrues-facts-2022-6

Coach Kennedy case: Neil Gorsuch tells kids to get over religious coercion at school.

"…Justice Neil Gorsuch's opinion for the court accepts the narrative that Kennedy was fired. Which he wasn't—he was put on paid administrative leave. And Gorsuch accepts the narrative that this was "private" and "quiet," even though there were TV cameras and elected officials and people storming the field and knocking over the tuba players to join…"

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/06/coach-kennedy-gorsuch-prayer-public-schools.html

Coach Kennedy at the Supreme Court: Brett Kavanaugh’s question cut through the lies.

…in case after case, the Supreme Court has held that public schools violate the establishment clause when they coerce students into prayer. Even when that coercion is "subtle and indirect," it "can be as real as any overt compulsion," especially for students…

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/04/coach-kennedy-supreme-court-kavanaugh-school-prayer.html

Was the Pledge of Allegiance plagiarized? (Hemant Mehta and Jessica Bluemke, The Friendly Atheist podast #421)

— Nebraska Sen. Megan Hunt helped defeat an anti-abortion bill with an incredible speech. (4:45)

— A school prayer case from 1999 was cited to derail an honor for a historic Black judge. (14:15)

— Mubarak Bala was sentenced to 24 years in jail for blasphemy. (27:48)

— The Pledge of Allegiance may have been plagiarized from a child. (35:15)

— No deciding your sexual orientation until you're 21, says conspiracist Rep. Lauren Boebert. (49:59)

— Most Americans know religious objections to the COVID vaccines are bogus. (53:44)

— Christians can't hijack a football stadium's PA system to promote Jesus, said a judge. (57:07)
Interview: 

https://audioboom.com/posts/8063035-ep-421-was-the-pledge-of-allegiance-plagiarized