Politics

(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Senate is poised to vote to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court on Thursday, paving the way for Jackson to become the first Black woman in history to sit on the nation’s highest court.

“It will be a joyous day. Joyous for the Senate, joyous for the Supreme Court, joyous for America,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday evening. “America tomorrow will take a giant step to becoming a perfect nation.”

It’s still unclear whether President Joe Biden will make an appearance following the afternoon vote, which is expected to be called around 1:45 p.m., or whether Vice President Kamala Harris, as president of the Senate, will preside over the chamber for the historic occasion.

While Democrats have the votes to confirm Biden’s nominee on their own, three Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney — will break ranks from the GOP to join them, marking a solid, bipartisan win for the Biden White House in a hyper-partisan Washington. Former President Donald Trump’s last nominee, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, received no votes from Democrats.

If confirmed, Jackson is not expected to be fully sworn in for duty until summer, once retiring Justice Stephen Breyer steps down.

In marathon hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee last month, Jackson was given the opportunity to tell the panel — and the American people — what it would mean to her to serve on the nation’s highest court.

“I stand on the shoulders of so many who have come before me, including Judge Constance Baker Motley, who was the first African American woman to be appointed to the federal bench and with whom I share a birthday,” Jackson said. “And, like Judge Motley, I have dedicated my career to ensuring that the words engraved on the front of the Supreme Court building — ‘Equal Justice Under Law’ — are a reality and not just an ideal.”

Jackson endured nearly 24 hours of questioning from senators in the, at times, contentious and emotional hearings.

“Not a single justice has been a Black woman. You, Judge Jackson, can be the first,” said chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill. “It’s not easy being the first. You have to be the best and in some ways the brightest. Your presence here today and your willingness to brave this process will give inspiration to millions of women who see themselves in you.”

Meanwhile, several Republicans assailed Jackson with accusations that she’s a liberal activist and “soft on crime”– taking issue with nine child pornography sentences she handed down, criticizing her legal work for Guantanamo Bay detainees, and questioning support she received from progressive groups.

“In your nomination, did you notice that people from the left were pretty much cheering you on?” asked Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

“A lot of people were cheering me on, senator,” she replied.

Notably, Graham voted to confirm Jackson to a lifetime judicial appointment last year but said he’ll vote no this time — and warned that if Republicans had control of the Senate, Jackson wouldn’t have received hearings to begin with.

Others in the GOP pressed Jackson to explain critical race theory, say whether babies are racist, and to define “woman” — questions which Democrats repeatedly criticized as they took to defending her record and applauding her character.

“You did not get there because of some left wing agenda,” Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., told her in a dramatic soliloquy, moving Jackson to tears. “You didn’t get here because of some dark money groups. You got here how every Black woman in America who has gotten anywhere has done. You are worthy. You are a great American.”

While Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called Jackson’s performance, at times, “evasive and unclear,” scrutinizing her judicial philosophy, Jackson insisted “there is not a label” for her judiciary philosophy — because she says she doesn’t have one. She told the committee, “I am acutely aware that, as a judge in our system, I have limited power, and I am trying in every case to stay in my lane.”

At age 51, Jackson currently sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to which she was named by Biden and confirmed by the Senate last year in a bipartisan vote. She has also been Senate-confirmed on two other occasions.

She will replace Justice Breyer, whom she once clerked for, when he retires at the end of the term. Jackson said last month, “It is extremely humbling to be considered for Justice Breyer’s seat, and I know that I could never fill his shoes. But if confirmed, I would hope to carry on his spirit.”

When Biden formally announced Jackson’s nomination at the White House, he fulfilled a promise made on the 2020 presidential campaign ahead of the South Carolina primary when he relied heavily on support from the state’s Black voters.

“For too long our government, our courts haven’t looked like America,” he said on Feb. 25. “And I believe it is time that we have a court that reflects the full talents and greatness of our nation with a nominee of extraordinary qualifications.”

Jackson’s parents, Johnny and Ellery Brown, Miami natives who grew up under segregation in the South, were on hand at the historic hearings to support their daughter — who they say was once told by a school guidance counselor to lower her sights.

Jackson, instead, soared.

Growing up, her mother was a public high school principal in Miami-Dade County, where Jackson attended public schools and was a “star student,” while her father was a teacher and, later on, county school board attorney. Jackson has fondly recalled memories of drawing in her coloring books next to her father studying his law school textbooks. Her younger brother, her only sibling, served in the U.S. military and did tours in combat. Two of her uncles have been law enforcement officers.

After graduating from Miami Palmetto Senior High School, Jackson went on to attend Harvard College and Harvard Law School. There she met her husband, Patrick, a general surgeon, and the couple share two daughters, Talia, 21, and Leila, 17.

Asked about her message to young Americans, Jackson recalled to the Senate Judiciary Committee of feeling out of place at Harvard in her first semester — and provided a remarkable lesson in resilience.

“I was really questioning: Do I belong here? Can I, can I make it in this environment?” she said. “And I was walking through the yard in the evening and a black woman I did not know was passing me on the sidewalk, and she looked at me, and I guess she knew how I was feeling. And she leaned over as we crossed and said ‘persevere.'”

“I would tell them to persevere,” Jackson said.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — The House of Representatives has voted to hold Trump White House officials Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with subpoenas for records and testimony from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — The Pentagon has been providing daily updates on the U.S. assessment of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Ukraine’s efforts to resist.

Here are highlights of what a senior U.S. defense official told reporters Wednesday on Day 42:

All Russian troops withdrawn from around Kyiv and Chernihiv

The tens of thousands of Russian troops arrayed against Kyiv and Chernihiv have withdrawn north across the borders of Belarus and Russia to consolidate before likely redeploying to eastern Ukraine, according to the senior defense official.

“We are assessing that they have completely withdrawn from Kiev and from Chernihiv,” the official said.

But even with the Russian forces, the territory remains treacherous.

“There are some indications that they left behind mines and things like that, so the Ukrainians are being somewhat careful in some areas north of Kyiv as they begin to clear the ground and clear the territory and re-occupy it,” the official said.

On Monday, the Pentagon estimated that roughly one-third of the Russian forces apparently originally designated to take the capital remained.

Before the withdrawal, there were about 20 Russian battalion tactical groups (BTGs) consisting of 800-1,000 troops each in the areas north and northwest of Kyiv, and another 20 BTGs near Chernihiv, according to the official.

While the U.S. hasn’t yet seen these troops redeploy elsewhere in Ukraine, it’s likely to happen soon, according to the official.

“Our assessment is that they won’t want to spend too much time on refit and resupply because they have made a very public show of saying that they’re going to prioritize their efforts on the Donbas region,” the official said.

But the timing will depend on how much work is needed to get the Russian forces back into fighting condition.

“Some of these units have been much more depleted than others, and it’s possible that the Russians could combine units to make new BTGs as a result, we just we just don’t know,” the official said.

Of the roughly 130 BTGs Russia dedicated to the invasion, about 80 are still inside Ukraine, according to the official. More than 30 are already in the Donbas region.

US sending ‘urgent’ shipment of anti-tank missiles for fight in Donbas

Ukrainian forces are preparing for a major fight in the east as Russia prepares as many as 40 BTGs to join 30 more battalions already in Donbas.

“They’re not waiting,” the official said. “They are already adapting to increased Russian activity in the Donbas region and doing the best they can.”

On Tuesday, the Biden administration authorized a $100 million drawdown package to “meet an urgent Ukrainian need for additional Javelin anti-armor systems,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a statement.

The senior U.S. defense official said this move was specifically to help in Donbas.

“One of the reasons why you saw us describe this $100 million drawdown package last night as an urgent need for Javelins was in fact because of the activity in the Donbas and the Ukrainians wanting to make sure that they’re ready for increased Russian activity there,” the official said.

Ukrainians get drone training in US

A small number of Ukrainians currently in the U.S. for “professional military education” were pulled aside for a couple days of training on Switchblade drones, which the U.S. is sending overseas as part of its military aid, according to the official.

“Although it’s not a very difficult system to operate, we took advantage of having them in the country to give them some rudimentary training on that,” the official said. “And there may be some additional rudimentary training while they’re here.”

The official said fewer than 12 Ukrainians were given this U.S.-based training.

Pentagon blames Russia for nitric acid explosion

The official said the Pentagon is “monitoring” an apparent nitric acid explosion in the Luhansk region, which Russia blamed on Ukraine.

“We’ve seen the Russians claim that this was a Ukrainian attack on this. We do not believe that is true,” the official said. “We do believe that the Russians are responsible, but exactly what they used when they did it, why they did it, what the damage is, we just don’t have that level of detail,” the official said.

‘Premeditated’ Russian atrocities in Bucha

“When you see individuals with their hands tied behind their backs and evidence of being shot in the head, that certainly appears to be premeditated,” the official said, again calling for Russian war crimes in Ukraine to be investigated.

Long-range strikes shifting east

Russia has now launched more than 1,450 missiles against Ukraine, according to the official. The Pentagon is seeing more airstrikes targeting the east than Kyiv as Russia shifts its overall focus to the Donbas region.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Ohio Republicans introduced a House bill on Monday prohibiting “divisive or inherently racist” curriculum and banning instruction that includes sexual orientation and gender identity. The proposal is now facing backlash from local LGBTQ advocates.

The bill combines language from Florida’s controversial Parental Rights in Education law, dubbed by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, and anti-critical race theory legislation proposed by Republicans in some states.

The bill states that “curriculum or instructional materials on sexual orientation or gender identity” would be banned in classrooms starting from kindergarten through third grade.

In grades four through twelve, such instruction would be banned if presented in “any manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards,” the bill reads.

It is unclear how age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate-ness is defined and applied.

Opponents of restricting LGBTQ content have been vocal with their outcries after Florida passed its Parental Rights in Education law.

LGBTQ advocates say the legislation would make LGBTQ identities taboo again and silence LGBTQ students and teachers in the classroom.

They say they expect these policies to have negative mental health impacts on LGBTQ youth who are already vulnerable to discrimination and bullying.

More than 225 bills that target LGBTQ content or identities have been filed in the first three months of 2022, according to LGBTQ media watchdog GLAAD.

“Ohio’s Don’t Say Gay bill is yet another insidious attempt to chill and censor free speech in the classroom. Lawmakers are effectively trying to erase LGBTQ+ people and skew history in their favor,” said Equality Ohio’s executive director, Alana Jochum, in a statement.

“Attacks like these are a product of a small minority of people pushing their agenda to dismantle diversity at all costs — and in the process putting educators and families in jeopardy for political gain,” she continued.

The ban on “divisive or inherently racist concepts” includes “critical race theory, intersectional theory, the 1619 project, diversity, equity, and inclusion learning outcomes” and “inherited racial guilt.”

Critical race theory is a discipline in higher education that analyzes how racism impacts U.S legal systems. Intersectional theory analyzes how the different aspects of a person’s identity can affect how they may be impacted by discrimination.

The 1619 project is a New York Times initiative that reframes the story of America by placing “slavery and its continuing legacy at the center of the [country’s] national narrative,” according to the project’s website.

Opponents of this legislation say such laws villainize attempts to teach about race and diversity in public schools, shutting down lessons that could make students think about the history of oppression in the U.S.

Supporters of these kinds of bills, including Rep. Jean Schmidt who introduced the Ohio legislation, say that the legislation is intended to give parents more say over what their children learn.

“The classroom is a place that seeks answers for our children without political activism,” Schmidt said in a press release Tuesday. “Parents deserve and should be provided a say in what is taught to their children in schools. The intent of this bill is to provide them with the tools to be able to see what their child is being taught.”

So far, the bill only has two sponsors: Schmidt and Rep. Mike Loychik. Gov. Mike DeWine has yet to publicly announce his support for this bill.

Bills that restrict LGBTQ discussions, books, or curricula from classrooms have been introduced in Georgia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Kansas, Indiana and other states.

However, a recent ABC News/Ipsos poll found that more than 6 in 10 Americans oppose legislation that would prohibit classroom lessons about sexual orientation or gender identity in elementary school.

Researchers from Monmouth University found in a November 2021 study on critical race theory that respondents seem to approve of education on race, but not when the question is phrased asking about “critical race theory:”

When asked about teaching “the history of racism” in schools, 75% supported the idea. However, when asked about teaching critical race theory, only 43% supported it.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Attorney General Merrick Garland tested positive for COVID-19 via antigen tests Wednesday afternoon, the Department of Justice said.

“He asked to be tested after learning that he may have been exposed,” the DOJ said in a statement.

The news comes hours after Garland participated in a press conference alongside multiple other top law enforcement officials, including FBI Director Chris Wray.

Garland, who is vaccinated and boosted, doesn’t have any symptoms, the statement said.

The attorney general is one of several prominent officials to test positive after attending Saturday’s Gridiron dinner in Washington, D.C.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, all attended Saturday’s event and have all tested positive for COVID-19 this week.

Garland will work virtually while isolating at home, and the DOJ will conduct contact tracing, the statement said.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Trump White House lawyer Eric Herschmann is expected to appear Wednesday before the Jan. 6 select committee investigating the Capitol attack, according to multiple sources familiar with his scheduled appearance.

Herschmann and a committee spokesperson did not return ABC News’ requests for comment on the interview, which could be postponed or rescheduled.

A lawyer who defended former President Donald Trump during Trump’s first impeachment trial and worked in the West Wing as a senior adviser, Herschman was involved in discussions and meetings in the White House and at Trump campaign headquarters regarding Trump’s legal and political efforts to challenge the 2020 election results, including attempts to pressure the Justice Department to take more aggressive actions to investigate claims of election fraud.

He was involved in a contentious Dec. 18, 2020, meeting first reported by Axios, where Trump allies Sidney Powell, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne argued with Herschmann and other White House officials over invoking rarely used presidential powers to declare a national security emergency to seize voting machines — a plan that was ultimately rejected.

To date, the Jan. 6 committee has interviewed more than 800 witnesses and obtained tens of thousands of pages of emails, White House records, and phone records as part of its investigation.

A handful of witnesses have refused to comply with committee subpoenas. On Wednesday the full House will vote on whether to hold Trump White House officials Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino in contempt of Congress for defying committee subpoenas and refer the matter to the Justice Department for possible criminal charges.

In the last week the panel has interviewed Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner, both of whom worked in the White House and were involved in Trump’s reelection campaign.

The committee is expected to begin another round of public hearings as early as next month, Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., has told reporters.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday expressed outrage over the “horrible images” of killed civilians in Ukraine and said the U.S. is working with international partners to identify those responsible.

“This Department has a long history of helping to hold accountable those who perpetrate war crimes,” Garland said. “We have seen the dead bodies of civilians, some with bound hands, scattered in the streets. We have seen the mass graves. We have seen the bombed hospital, theater, and residential apartment buildings. The world sees what is happening in Ukraine. The Justice Department sees what is happening in Ukraine.”

Garland said investigators are in the “collection of evidence” stage of any war crime prosecution and he is not calling for anything similar to the Nuremberg Trials at this point, but he notably said the Justice Department has a “long history” of helping to hold accountable those who perpetrate war crimes.

“One of my predecessors — Attorney General Robert Jackson — later served as the chief American prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials,” he said.

Garland told reporters he personally spoke on Tuesday with the Justice Department’s chief prosecutor in Paris who has been meeting with the French war crimes prosecutor.

On Monday, Garland said prosecutors from the department’s Criminal Division met with prosecutors from Eurojust and EUROPOL to “work out a plan for gathering evidence with respect to Ukraine.”

“At the same time, the United States is at the request of the Ukrainian prosecutor assisting in the collection of information with respect to the atrocities that took place in Ukraine and that are still taking place,” Garland said.

“The world sees what is happening in Ukraine.”

Following images out of Bucha and other Ukrainian cities, AG Merrick Garland says U.S. is “assisting international efforts to identify and hold accountable those responsible for atrocities in Ukraine.” https://t.co/GyjVQ5rYNA pic.twitter.com/yItmo9sEkj

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) April 6, 2022

His remarks come as the Justice Department on Wednesday announced a myriad of actions against Russian oligarchs and Russian darknet operations.

DOJ charged Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev with sanctions violations, alleging Malofeyev as one of the main sources of financing for Russians promoting separatism in Crimea, and for providing material support for the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic.

These actions are part of the Justice Department’s KleptoCapture Task force, established last month and is aimed at seizing Russian oligarch assets.

“After being sanctioned by the United States, Malofeyev attempted to evade the sanctions by using co-conspirators to surreptitiously acquire and run media outlets across Europe,” Garland told reporters. “We are also announcing the seizure of millions of dollars from an account at a U.S. financial institution, which the indictment alleges constitutes proceeds traceable to Malofeyev’s sanctions violations.”

One of Malofeyev’s co-conspirators, according to DOJ, Jack Hanick a former U.S. television producer, was arrested last month in the United Kingdom where he had been living for violating U.S. sanctions stemming from Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.

The Justice Department also announced the disruption of a global botnet run by the GRU, which DOJ says the Russians have used similar infrastructure to attack the Ukrainians and were able to shut the system down before it was able to be used against thousands of network devices it had reportedly infected.

FBI Director Christopher Wray told reporters the team behind the global botnet was behind some of most infectious cyberattacks in recent memory — including the cyberattacks against the Winter Olympics in 2018, attacks on Ukrainian power grid in 2015 and the attack on the country of Georgia in 2019.

“We’re going to act as soon as we can with whatever partners are best situated to help,” Wray said. “The Russian government has show that it has no qualms about conducting this kind of criminal activity and they continue to pose a threat.”

Garland echoed Wray’s comments, saying, “We were then able to disable the GRU’s control over those devices before the botnet could be weaponized.”

The Justice Department seized a yacht that belongs to Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg in Marina Real in the Spanish port of Palma de Mallorca, according to court documents unsealed Monday.

In addition to the seizure of Vekselberg’s yacht, U.S. authorities also obtained seizure warrants unsealed in Washington, D.C., Monday that target roughly $625,000 associated with sanctioned parties that’s being held at nine U.S. financial institutions, the Justice Department said.

“It does not matter how far you sail your yacht. It does not matter how well you conceal your assets. It does not matter how cleverly you write your malware or hide your online activity. The Justice Department will use every available tool to find you, disrupt your plots, and hold you accountable,” Garland said.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Republican candidates are shying away from the debate stage as the midterm elections approach.

Over a half dozen GOP candidates in crucial state and federal races have either skipped out on or not committed to primary debates.

Joe Lombardo, a gubernatorial candidate in Nevada, turned down a chance to debate in January. In Nebraska, Jim Pillen, another gubernatorial candidate, turned down offers to debate his opponents in March, telling ABC News debates amount to “political theater.”

In Pennsylvania, Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz did not take part in the first GOP Senate primary debate in January, citing a “prior commitment.”

And the frontrunner in the GOP Senate primary debate in Georgia is Hershal Walker, who said he won’t debate his primary opponents and is instead focused on facing Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock on the debate stage in the general election.

“We have always strongly encouraged all candidates to participate in our debates,” said Lauri Strauss, executive director of the Atlanta Press Club, which is organizing 15 primary debates in Georgia.

When candidates choose not to participate, there are ripple effects.

In North Carolina, Republican representative and Senate candidate Ted Budd declined to take part in a primary debate in February and said he won’t attend one scheduled for April.

When word spread that Budd was not participating in the debate this month, GOP Senate candidate and former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory pulled out too, saying he would only debate if Budd did. Once McCrory dropped out, that left only one candidate and The North Carolina Faith and Freedom Coalition, which was organizing the debate, decided to cancel it altogether.

In Ohio, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine also decided not to attend the state’s March GOP gubernatorial primary debate. Jill Zimon, executive director of the Ohio Debate Commission, said once DeWine made it public that he would not participate, former Rep. Jim Renacci’s campaign told the Ohio Debate Commission that Renacci would not attend unless DeWine changed his mind.

Asked why the governor declined the invitation, DeWine’s campaign told ABC News that he “is the most publicly accessible governor in Ohio history” and that Ohioans already know where he stands on the issues.

Richard Davis, the president of the State Debate Coalition and co-founder of the Utah Debate Commission, said Republican candidates are becoming more “empowered” to refuse traditional debates.

The Republican National Committee’s continuous threats to bar their party’s presidential nominees from participating in debates organized by the Presidential Debate Commission, he said, has encouraged other Republican candidates to set debate requirements in exchange for their participation.

“[Republicans believe they] can set the ground rules and say that organizations that run debates…are biased,” Davis said.

While Republicans have been declining debates in eyebrow raising numbers, Democrats are not immune.

In Pennsylvania, the frontrunner in the Democratic Senate race, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, did not take part in the first primary debate Sunday and instead met with voters in rural Pennsylvania. Fetterman’s campaign, however, said he has committed to three other upcoming debates.

As more candidates skip out on debates or dictate the conditions under which they will appear, both Davis and Strauss believe candidates are shirking an important public service for voters.

“How can someone run for office and want to be elected if they’re not willing to debate their opponents and let the public know what they stand for?” Strauss said.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(BREMERTON, Wash.) — A coach’s personal act of prayer that grew into a public spectacle after Bremerton High School football games is now a major test of the First Amendment in a case this month before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The coach, Joe Kennedy, who was suspended by the school in 2015 over post-game prayers on the field, is asking the justices to affirm the right of public school employees to pray aloud while on the job, even when within view of students they coach or teach.

“This is a right for everybody. It doesn’t matter if you’re this religion or that religion or have no faith whatsoever,” Kennedy told ABC News . “Everybody has the same rights in America.”

The school district says Kennedy’s prayers, some of which were surrounded by players at the 50 yard-line, are hardly private acts of faith and run afoul of constitutional prohibitions against promotion of religion by government officials.

“It was my covenant between me and God that after every game, win or lose, I’m going to do it right there on the field of battle,” Kennedy said of his ritual, which he said typically lasted less than a minute.

Lower courts sided with the school district. A Supreme Court ruling for Kennedy has the potential to expand the ability of public school employees nationwide to practice their faiths more openly around students, legal experts say.

The case will be argued April 25 and decided by the end of June.

The First Amendment protects free speech and free exercise of religion, but it also prohibits the establishment of religion by the government. The Supreme Court has long said that public school-sponsored prayer violates the Establishment Clause, even if the prayer is voluntary.

It has struck down Bible readings and teacher-led prayer in classrooms, religious invocations at graduations and religious displays at other school sponsored activities. In a 2000 case, Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, the court said that opening football games with student-led prayer is also unconstitutional.

At the same time, the court has ruled that free speech rights don’t end at the schoolhouse gate and that religion need not be entirely expunged from public schools.

While Kennedy routinely prayed on the field after games for more than seven years, attracting varying levels of participation from students, it wasn’t until 2015 that the school district informed him that separation of church and state meant he could no longer pray with players and keep his job.

“They just said if anybody could see you anywhere here, it was over,” Kennedy said.

The school district explained at the time that the prayers violated “constitutionally-required directives that he refrain from engaging in overt, public religious displays on the football field while on duty.”

Some Bremerton High School parents like Paul Peterson, whose son Aaron played for coach Kennedy in 2010, later complained the prayer sessions were applying inappropriate pressure.

“The coach is a leader. The coach is a mentor. If he goes to the 50-yard line, he has a message he wants to deliver, and so the players would follow,” said Peterson in an interview.

“The harm is to those who are the minority students, the minority faiths, the students who have no faith,” he said. “They are being pressured into doing something that they don’t fundamentally agree with.That’s what the First Amendment protects us from.”

Kennedy insists there was no coercion, though widely publicized scenes show his post-game prayers became much more than solitary acts of faith.

Attorney Jeremy Dys, representing Kennedy on behalf of the First Liberty Institute, said the coach should not be held accountable for the voluntary decisions of others to join him in an expression of faith.

“He’s not on the field coaching anybody, he’s not telling what play to run. No instruction taking place,” Dys said. “School districts don’t own every word out of your mouth or any religious expression that you choose to make in your private time, even on school grounds.”

A federal appeals court called Kennedy’s characterization of his prayers as brief, quiet and solitary as a “deceitful narrative,” noting that they were clearly audible prayers surrounded by groups of students, amounting to unlawful religious speech as “a school official.”

“If this were a case about a coach who in fact wanted to pray privately, in a solitary manner, we wouldn’t be here,” said Rachel Laser, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a nonprofit advocacy group backing the school district. “You don’t leave that behind when you go teach or coach at a public school, but what you do leave behind is your ability to engage students who are very impressionable, who are required to attend public school.”

Kennedy’s case has been cheered on by top Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, dozens of state and federal lawmakers, and star NFL quarterbacks, like Kirk Cousins and Nick Foles, who have told the justices in a friend-of-the-court filing that the power of prayer promotes good sportsmanship.

“These kids mean everything to me, because I was a troubled youth, and I wanted to reach out to help these kids in Bremerton, give back to my community which I terrorized as a kid,” said Kennedy, who is a Marine Corps veteran and former project manager at the Bremerton naval shipyard.

On the other side of the debate, leaders of minority faiths, atheists and parents like Peterson, say a coach’s good intentions shouldn’t be an excuse for flouting the Constitution.

“When the teacher or coach is standing up and leading the children, I think you cross the line into indoctrination,” Peterson said.

The case could have an impact on public school playing fields nationwide and determine whether Kennedy can coach again, and take a knee in prayer for his Bremerton Knights.

He currently lives in Florida but has told the Court he would move back to Bremerton if the justices rule in his favor.

“Nobody should have to be fired or worry about their job if they show any signs of faith,” Kennedy said. “At the end of the game, I’m hoping to have victory but we’ll see how the courts rule.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — The White House is attempting to speed up the nation’s response to long COVID by establishing a new task force to coordinate research efforts across the government.

President Joe Biden appointed Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra as the interagency task force leader in a memorandum issued Tuesday.

The task force will deliver two reports over the next four months, a senior administration official told ABC News.

The first report will lay out existing government services for people struggling with long COVID. The second report will plan for further research needs.

“The interagency will take 120 days to put forward a comprehensive action plan that will lay out all of the work that’s ongoing, the lessons that have been learned and the plan moving forward to make sure we continue to accelerate and move as fast as we can,” the senior administration official said.

Biden’s directive also called on the National Institute of Health to accelerate its ongoing $1.15 billion research project, moving quicker to fulfill its slow-moving pledge to enroll 40,000 Americans in long COVID studies.

Other White House efforts would require about $45 million in funding, all of which depends on congressional approval, which is expected to be an uphill battle for Biden. About $25 million would go toward long COVID research, and about $20 million would be allocated to fund centers that are making headway in long COVID treatment.

But experts who advocate for the government to do more on long COVID say money is not the chief concern. The government has already made a huge investment in long COVID research with the over $1 billion NIH project called the Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) Initiative.

And Biden’s memorandum on Tuesday didn’t add many new policies to the federal response.

The top priority, experts say, is moving quickly on research that is already underway to get a clear picture of how widespread long COVID is and how urgently the country needs to respond.

“I think the frustration is they’re taking their time,” said former White House Health Policy Advisor Dr. Zeke Emanuel, reacting to Biden’s announcement.

Emanuel, who co-wrote a recent report on the path out of the pandemic, called for NIH to enroll people quicker in its studies and “turbocharge” the process. Recent reporting found the NIH had so far enrolled 1,366 people, or just 3% of its goal.

“This is not rocket science. These are desperate people and it should be easy to enroll hundreds of thousands of them,” Emanuel said.

He criticized the four-month timeline, though commended the White House for announcing Becerra as “the point person” and “realizing they have to do more.”

The White House, for its part, said on Tuesday that results would come out “every day” of the four-month period.

“We’re not going to wait 120 days to share our results. We’re coming out with our results every single day, as soon as we have them,” a senior administration official said.

“We feel the urgency of this moment. We want to make sure that we’re sharing lessons and learnings as we have them and that is our commitment,” the official added.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.