Supreme Court hears a coach’s argument for prayer on the football field

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• Judy Woodruff:

  Today, the Supreme Court once again tackled a question that's lingered since our country's founding, where exactly to draw the line between church and state.

  Correspondent John Yang breaks down the arguments in this case, as they played out on the football field and before the nation's highest court.

• John Yang:

  Joe Kennedy was a football coach at Bremerton, Washington, High School for eight years. What put him in the spotlight was what he did after the final whistle.

• Joe Kennedy, Former Bremerton High School Coach:

  Just a really brief slow brief silent prayer by myself on the 50-yard-line thanking God for what the kids just did on the field and me being part of it.

• John Yang:

  School administrators said they were unaware of this postgame ritual for years, even as some of his own players and opposing teams joined him, voluntarily, Kennedy says.

  Then, in 2015, a coach from one of those opposing teams praised the school district for allowing Kennedy to pray so publicly.

• Joe Kennedy:

  And it became this big giant mess that we're in today.

• John Yang:

  School administrators decided that Kennedy was out of bounds, worried that a coach publicly praying in this way could be seen as the school endorsing religion.

  The two sides tried to find a compromise, but Kennedy, backed by a national religious liberties group, eventually resumed his midfield postgame prayer. The school suspended him with pay, and Kennedy did not seek to renew his year-to-year contract.

• Joe Kennedy:

  I am a high school football coach. I don't know anything about the law. I defended the Constitution. I'm not an expert on it. But I knew my rights as an American.

• John Yang:

  In addition to religious liberties group, he is backed by high-profile Christian pro athletes like quarterbacks Kirk Cousins and Nick Foles.

  Bremerton, a tight-knit community that sits across the Puget Sound from Seattle, is divided by the case.

• Jennifer Chamberlin, Bremerton City Council:

  What he really wanted was to do his prayer on the field, to grandstand his prayer under the stadium lights. It was to bring attention to himself and his Christian prayer in a facility that is paid for by the taxpayers during a school-sponsored event.

• John Yang:

  At the time, Jennifer Chamberlin, who works for the school district and is now on the city council, went to games as a band mom.

  Kennedy's prayers brought back memories of feeling ostracized when she spoke out against pregame prayers at her own Tennessee high school. Decades later, she is speaking out again.

• Jennifer Chamberlin:

  I was gravely concerned about students, whether on the football team or students speaking out, students at a high school who didn't identify as Christian being harassed because of my previous experience and not having any adult support.

• John Yang:

  In today's oral arguments, justices pressed both sides on where to draw the line between school official and private citizen.

  Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh question attorney Richard Katskee of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which is representing the school district.

• Brett Kavanaugh, U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice:

  : How far does that go? A coach does the sign of the cross before the game, is that — could a school fire the coach for the sign of the cross right before the game?

  Richard Katskee>, Attorney, Americans United for Separation of Church and State

• Brett Kavanaugh:

  don't know how we could write an opinion that would draw a line based on not making yourself the center of attention as the head coach of a game.

• John Yang:

  Liberal Justice Elena Kagan seemed skeptical seemed skeptical of arguments from Kennedy's attorney, Paul Clement.

  Paul Clement, Attorney for Joe Kennedy: There is overt discrimination on the basis of religion, as is evidenced in the record here, by school districts who aren't evil. It is just they are doing it out of misguided endorsement concerns.

• Elena Kagan, U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice:

  There must be countless times when a coach in the postgame talk or a teacher in math class where people would totally believe them if they said, I'm doing this as just me.

  Now, that seems to me to be coercive of 16-year-olds, regardless if they know that it's him and not the school district.

  Marcia Coyle, "The National Law Journal": This case involved a lot of hypotheticals, John.

• John Yang:

  Marcia Coyle is chief Washington correspondent for "The National Law Journal."

• Marcia Coyle:

  There is a serious dispute over the facts in this case, over what exactly the coach was doing while he was at the 50-yard line, how private, personal the prayer was. And where do you draw the line as to how much religion may be too much in terms of the school district's ability to manage its schools's works, its games, its athletic games, and yet still be respectful of an individual's right to express his or her religion?

  So, there is a lot here for the justices to mull over and a lot of different ways, I think, they can go to reach whatever result they want to reach.

  My sense was that the conservative majority was leaning more in favor of the coach. This is still a court that is very protective of religious rights.

• John Yang:

  The justices are expected to decide this case and three others that deal with religious liberty by early summer.

  For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm John Yang.