Judge rules coach can kneel while players pray

EAST BRUNSWICK, N.J. — A federal judge ruled July 25 that a high school football coach can bend a knee and bow his head while his players recite pregame prayers this season, ending a dispute that had mushroomed into a nationally recognized test of the separation of church and state.

After nearly two hours of arguments, U.S. District Judge Dennis Cavanaugh sided with the coach, Marcus Borden, declaring “taking a knee” isn’t praying. The judge also said the Middlesex County (N.J.) school district can’t order him to stand still while his players perform a locker-room ritual that spans decades.

Cavanaugh’s ruling said the school district’s policy had violated Borden’s constitutional rights to free speech, privacy, personal autonomy, freedom of association and academic freedom.

The ruling fell short of wading into the larger issue of prayer in public schools as some advocates had hoped.

But it represented a victory for Borden, a 51-year-old coach and Spanish teacher at East Brunswick High School who, since last fall, has battled to keep the post he has held for 23 years. A district policy enacted in October 2005 prohibited him from participating in team prayers, a practice Borden contended was unbearable.