Elena Kagan and the Supreme Not-A-Court
So consider a case that the Court described thus: “Joseph Kennedy lost his job as a high school football coach because he knelt at midfield after games to offer a quiet prayer of thanks.” It declared that his rights had been violated, and directed the trial court to order his reinstatement. It took the opportunity to upend some major rules of establishment clause law, notably relaxing the rule against teacher-led school prayer.
Everything in the sentence I just quoted was false, and the Court knew or should have known that it was false. He didn’t lose his job: he was offered an “accommodation that would allow him to pray after games away from his players,” which he rejected; he was put on paid leave; when his contract expired in the spring, he “did not reapply to coach the following year.” He did not “pray quietly by himself” on the field. He was surrounded by a crowd that he had brought there. He pressured his players to join him, leading some parents to complain.
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