9th Circuit Court judge from Idaho Falls returning home to speak about religious freedom
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IDAHO FALLS – For the last 234 years, the Bill of Rights has guaranteed the protection of certain individual liberties. Among them is freedom of speech and religion, as outlined in the First Amendment.
Ryan D. Nelson, a judge with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and Idaho Falls native, will address that topic in a free, nonpartisan, nondenominational event for the public. “Freedom to Believe” will be held at Hillcrest High School at 7 p.m. on Sept. 24, one week after Constitution Day.
Scott Hall, Bonneville County’s chief deputy prosecutor and attorney for the city of Ammon, tells EastIdahoNews.com the Ninth Circuit frowned upon granting Nelson a media interview, so he is speaking to us instead. Hall has known Nelson for 35 years and is helping to coordinate his event in Ammon.
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“(Finding) the proper balance between a person’s right for freedom of speech and the right for religious belief … is an issue the Supreme Court has wrestled with over the years. (Nelson) will be addressing those topics,” Hall says.
The motivation for this topic stems from Kennedy v. the Bremerton School District, a 2022 case that Judge Nelson was involved in.
The case revolved heavily around Joseph Kennedy, a high school football coach in Bremerton, Washington. At the conclusion of each game, he would offer a prayer at the 50-yard line. Players, students and others later joined him.
Concerns about a potential violation of the Establishment Clause separating church and state prompted the school board to ask Kennedy if he would pray elsewhere or at a later time. Kennedy persisted.
As a result, the board did not renew his contract, which led Kennedy to file a lawsuit against them. Although lower courts and the Ninth Circuit ruled in favor of the school board, the Supreme Court said the board acted improperly and overruled the decision.
Hall explains that Judge Nelson wrote a dissenting opinion on the Ninth Circuit’s decision, which played a role in the case advancing to the Supreme Court.
Nelson was appointed to the Ninth Circuit Court by President Donald Trump in 2018. He replaced Judge N. Randy Smith of Pocatello.
This will be Nelson’s first visit to Idaho Falls in an official capacity since last year. In September 2024, he accompanied the Court to a special sitting at the Bonneville County Courthouse to hear two cases.
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The “Freedom to Believe” event comes in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, which has sparked a national conversation about First Amendment rights.
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As Hall reflects on the reason these rights are under attack, he notes that even though it’s a time of great political division, “religion has always been a hot topic.”
“If we go back to the Mayflower in 1620, most of those people came (to this continent in search of religious freedom),” says Hall.
Hall has a personal appreciation for this topic. He is a descendant of Mary and Isaac Allerton who went to Holland to escape religious persecution in England. They later returned to England to board the Mayflower that landed at what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts.
“(Religion) has been a fairly hot topic ever since. People are passionate about religion and about God. Some people are passionate that God doesn’t exist and that they should have those rights recognized,” Hall says. “Most people want to be good citizens and help their neighbor. That is the basis of religious freedom … and people should have those opportunities to exercise their beliefs.”
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Hall encourages people to attend Nelson’s presentation. It’s happening in conjunction with the America 250 celebration and is the commencement of a year-long observance in Bonneville County.
Bonneville County Commissioner Michelle Mallard is part of the planning committee for the celebration. She says a variety of activities are in the works and will be announced as details are finalized.
Ratification of the Constitution
It had been four long, intensive months of deliberation for the 55 delegates at Independence Hall for the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.
It was Sept. 17, 1787, and 39 of the delegates, each with different backgrounds and beliefs, were now preparing to sign a document they’d worked tirelessly to design. Somehow, through an act of Providence, they were able to reach a compromise in establishing fundamental laws, the roles of America’s national government, and guarantee certain basic rights for its citizens.
On the final day of the convention, James Madison, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Ben Franklin and 35 others signed what we now know as the U.S. Constitution.
Franklin, the oldest and most respected delegate, had been responsible for quelling much of the opposition towards the document and helped the men to recognize it as the best compromise possible.
As the last of the delegates finished signing it, he looked at the image of the sun on George Washington’s chair.
“I have often … looked at that sun behind the President without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting,” Franklin is reported to have said. “At length, I have the happiness to know it is a rising and not a setting sun.”
As the convention came to a close and Franklin was leaving, someone shouted at him,
“Doctor, what have we got? A republic or a monarchy?”
To which Franklin replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.”