The Supreme Court sided with a former high school football coach who lost his job over praying on the 50-yard line after games saying his First Amendment rights were violated in a major ruling for exercising free speech.
School suspends football coach for praying, case goes to Supreme Court
In 2008, when Joseph Kennedy began coaching football at Bremerton High School, he began praying alone at the 50-yard line at the end of games. But over time, some students began joining him. Kennedy started delivering a short, inspirational talk with religious references, ESPN reported. He also led some locker room prayers.
But when the school district learned what Kennedy was doing in 2015, they had fears they could be sued for violating the religious freedom rights of students and asked him to stop praying on the field in view of other students.
Kennedy stopped leading students in locker room prayers, as well as on the field, but wanted to continue kneeling and praying on the field by himself after games. The school asked him not to do so while he was still “on duty” as a coach. However, he continued.
Kennedy was placed on administrative leave by the Bremerton School district and banned from participating in the football program because of his praying on the field after games in view of students, the Daily Wire reported.
Later, the head coach of the varsity team recommended Kennedy not be rehired for failing to follow district policy and other things and Kennedy lost his job.
Kennedy was formerly an assistant coach for Bremerton High School’s varsity football team and head coach of the junior varsity team for seven years in Washington State.
Kennedy then sued and the case advanced all the way to the Supreme Court.
Supreme Court sides with football coach who prayed midfield after games
The US Supreme Court ruled on Monday that a former high school football coach had a constitutional right to pray on the field immediately after games via the free speech and free exercise clauses of the First Amendment.
The court ruled 6-3 in favor of Joseph Kennedy on the grounds that Bremerton School District violated his religious freedom by telling him he couldn’t pray so publicly after the games, NBC reported.
The court also said the school board’s discipline of Kennedy was unwarranted, even under the concern of violating the separation of church and state.
“Both the Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses of the First Amendment protect expressions like Mr. Kennedy’s,” said Justice Neil Gorsuch writing for the majority opinion. “Nor does a proper understanding of the Amendment’s Establishment Clause require the government to single out private religious speech for special disfavor. The Constitution and the best of our traditions counsel mutual respect and tolerance, not censorship and suppression, for religious and nonreligious views alike.”
“Respect for religious expressions is indispensable to life in a free and diverse Republic — whether those expressions take place in a sanctuary or on a field, and whether they manifest through the spoken word or a bowed head,” Gorsuch wrote. “Here, a government entity sought to punish an individual for engaging in a brief, quiet, personal religious observance doubly protected” by the Constitution.
