Publications

Supreme Court Issues Opinion on Religious Expression for Public Employees

Co-Author, Polsinelli At Work Blog

The Supreme Court addressed the intersection of the First Amendment’s Establishment and Free Speech clauses as they relate to a public employee’s personal religious expression when done in the public eye. In a 6-to-3 decision, it held that public employers are not required to suppress employees’ religious expressions where the expression is not within the employee’s scope of employment, there is no evidence the employee was coercing others to join the expression and the public employer tolerates similar secular speech. The case is Kennedy v. Bremerton School District.