A federal appeals court ruled that a school board in Washington State could require the coach to stop praying at the 50-yard line after high school football games.
The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to hear an appeal from a high school football coach who lost his job after defying school administrators by kneeling and praying at the 50-yard line after his team’s games. The coach, Joseph A. Kennedy, said the actions of school board officials in Bremerton, Wash., violated his rights to free speech and free exercise of religion. The officials responded that the school was entitled to require that its employees refrain from public prayer. When the Supreme Court declined to hear an earlier appeal in the case in 2019, four justices issued a statement questioning a preliminary ruling in favor of the officials from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco. “The Ninth Circuit’s understanding of the free speech rights of public-school teachers is troubling and may justify review in the future,” Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote at the time. He was joined by Justices Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas. “What is perhaps most troubling about the Ninth Circuit’s opinion,” Justice Alito added, “is language that can be understood to mean that a coach’s duty to serve as a good role model requires the coach to refrain from any manifestation of religious faith — even when the coach is plainly not on duty.
