Joe Kennedy, a former football coach in Washington state, says his First Amendment rights were violated. Jeffrey Toobin is chief legal analyst for CNN and the author of "The Nine" and "The Oath." The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion on CNN. (CNN)By now, it’s well known that the Supreme Court , in its new conservative orientation, is poised to rewrite our understanding of the Constitution when it comes to abortion (allowing states to ban it) and gun control (preventing states from imposing it). But there’s another area that may be due for upheaval — the establishment and free exercise religion clauses of the First Amendment. Jeffrey Toobin That possibility was on display in Monday’s argument in Kennedy v. Bremerton . In this case, a football coach at a public high school in Washington state lost his job after he conducted public prayers on the 50-yard line after games. The issue in the case is whether the coach’s prayers amounted to a permissible exercise of the coach’s rights to free speech and free exercise of religion, or whether the prayers were an impermissible establishment of religion by the government. The district court and 9th […]
