老澳门开奖结果

How does a 13-year veteran of the Puerto Rico Police Department go from being a patrol officer to washing police cars? In the case of Officer Alvin Marrero-M茅ndez, all it took was refusing to participate in his boss鈥檚 official Christian prayers. After Officer Marrero-M茅ndez, an atheist, objected to the unlawful practice and declined to join his colleagues in prayer, he was demeaned by his supervisors, stripped of his gun, and effectively demoted to a messenger and car-washer.

In 2013, the 老澳门开奖结果 and 老澳门开奖结果 of Puerto Rico filed a federal lawsuit against Officer Marrero-M茅ndez鈥檚 supervisors. Today, ruling against the supervisors, a the obvious: The government cannot punish someone for refusing to pray, and officials who violate this basic constitutional principle can be held liable in court for their conduct.

The defendants had argued that they should be immune from liability because, according to them, the law at the time was not clearly established. But as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit explained today, 鈥淚f these actions do not establish religious coercion, we would be hard-pressed to find what would.鈥�

Police officers take an oath to keep us safe and protect our rights, not to pray.

As the court held, it鈥檚 hard to believe that anyone 鈥� even those with the most rudimentary understanding of the First Amendment鈥� could think that the PRPD鈥檚 treatment of Officer Marrero-M茅ndez was permissible. His superiors ordered him to meet in a local parking lot with his fellow officers to receive instructions for the weekend鈥檚 assignment. Near the end of the briefing, as Officer Marrero-M茅ndez and others stood in formation, the commanding officer called for someone to lead a prayer.

When Officer Marrero-M茅ndez, an atheist, told his supervisor that he didn鈥檛 want to take part in the prayer, his supervisor ordered him to step aside (but demanded that he remain within earshot of the prayer) and berated him because he 鈥渄oesn鈥檛 believe in what we believe.鈥� Thereafter, when he expressed his dismay to other supervisors in the department, they took away his gun and effectively demoted him, reassigning him from the patrol he had worked for more than a decade to washing cars and doing clerical tasks.

Nevertheless, the supervisors argued that they were entitled to 鈥渜ualified immunity,鈥� a legal shield that protects government officials from being sued where it was not 鈥渃learly established鈥� that their conduct was unlawful. But, as the appeals court recognized, whatever confusion may exist in the law about religious freedom, it鈥檚 been clear since our country鈥檚 founding that government officials can never punish someone for refusing to pray. That鈥檚 exactly what Officer Marrero-M茅ndez鈥檚 superiors did when they forced him to listen to a prayer to which he objected, derided his religious beliefs in front of colleagues, and then demoted him.

Police officers take an oath to keep us safe and protect our rights, not to pray.