Angels in East Brunswick

PHILADELPHIA, Penn. — The Rutherford Institute, acting as co-counsel for Coach Marcus Borden, has filed a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit defending the right of the high school football coach to silently bow his head and bend his knee while members of the football team engage in the time-honored practice of student-initiated pre-game prayer. Although a federal court ruled in July 2006 that officials at East Brunswick School District in New Jersey violated Coach Borden’s constitutional rights when they forbade him from bowing his head or “taking a knee” during pre-game student prayers, the school district appealed the decision with the assistance of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

“There is a time and place when student religious expression is both appropriate and constitutionally sound,” said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. “This school district’s insistence on forbidding the small gestures of respect Coach Borden desires to demonstrate to his football team is part of an unfortunate national trend to use the Establishment Clause as a justification for suppressing the liberty of individuals whenever matters of faith are involved.”

The case arose in October 2005 after officials at East Brunswick High School adopted a policy prohibiting representatives of the school district from participating in student-initiated prayer, which has been a regular part of the high school football team’s pre-game activities for over 25 years. However, school officials justified their actions by insisting that while student athletes have the constitutionally protected right to pray, that privilege does not extend to coaches, who are public employees and whose participation would violate the “separation of church and state.”

In July 2006, U.S. District Judge Dennis Cavanaugh declared that the school district violated Borden’s constitutional rights to free speech, freedom of association and academic freedom when they prohibited him from silently bowing his head and “taking a knee” with his players while they engaged in student-initiated, student-led, nonsectarian pre-game prayers. The District Court also ruled that the school district would not be subject to liability under the Establishment Clause by virtue of Borden’s gestures of respect.

However, in challenging the court’s decision, the school district, aided by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, is arguing that Borden has no constitutional rights of expression or academic freedom in connection with his duties as a teacher and coach. In response to the school’s actions, Rutherford Institute attorneys have filed an appeal brief defending Borden’s First Amendment right to silently bow his head or “take a knee” while his players say their pre-game prayer and rebutting the school district’s claim that his simple, silent gestures of respect violate the Establishment Clause

Nisha N. Mohammed is the press contact for the Rutherford Institute.