Supreme Court agrees to hear case of coach who was fired for silent prayer after football games
The U.S. Supreme Court has announced that it will hear oral arguments in the case Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, Attorneys for First Liberty Institute and Kirkland & Ellis LLP, led by veteran Supreme Court advocate Paul Clement, represent Joe Kennedy.
Kennedy, a former high school football coach, is asking the Supreme Court to reverse a lower court decision that allowed a school district to fire him because fans and students could see him take a knee in silent prayer after football games.
According to the Ninth Circuit, public school teachers and coaches may be fired if they engage in any expression that the school does not like while they are on duty, and the Ninth Circuit appears to regard teachers and coaches as being on duty at all times from the moment they report for work to the moment they depart, provided that they are within the eyesight of students.
Under this interpretation of Garcetti, if teachers are visible to a student while eating lunch, they can be ordered not to engage in any “demonstrative” conduct of a religious nature, such as folding their hands or bowing their heads in prayer. And a school could also regulate what teachers do during a period when they are not teaching by preventing them from reading things that might be spotted by students or saying things that might be overheard.
BSD employed Kennedy as a football coach at Bremerton High School from 2008 to 2015. Kennedy served as an assistant coach for the varsity football team and also as the head coach for the junior varsity football team. Kennedy’s contract expired at the end of each football season. It provided that BSD “entrusted” Kennedy “to be a coach, mentor and role model for the 816*816student athletes.” Kennedy further agreed to “exhibit sportsmanlike conduct at all times,” and acknowledged that, as a football coach, he was “constantly being observed by others.”
Kennedy is a practicing Christian. Between 2008 and 2015, he led students and coaching staff in a locker-room prayer prior to most games. He also participated in prayers that took place in the locker room after the games had ended. Kennedy insists these activities predated his involvement with the program, and were engaged in as a matter of school tradition. His religious beliefs do not require him to lead any prayer before or after BHS football games.
Kennedy’s religious beliefs do require him to give thanks through prayer at the end of each game for the players’ accomplishments and the opportunity to be a part of their lives through football. Specifically, “[a]fter the game is over, and after the players and coaches from both teams have met to shake hands at midfield,” Kennedy feels called to “take a knee at the 50-yard line and offer a brief, quiet prayer of thanksgiving for player safety, sportsmanship, and spirited competition.” Kennedy’s prayer usually lasts about thirty seconds. He wears a shirt or jacket bearing a BHS logo when he prays at midfield. Because his “prayer lifts up the players and recognizes their hard work and sportsmanship during the game,” Kennedy’s religious beliefs require him to pray on the actual field where the game was played.
The court found in 2017:
M. SMITH, Circuit Judge:
Bremerton High School (BHS) football coach Joseph A. Kennedy appeals from the district court’s order denying his motion for a preliminary injunction that would require Bremerton School District (BSD or the District) to allow Kennedy to kneel and pray on the fifty-yard line in view of students and parents immediately after BHS football games. We affirm.
“No teacher or coach should lose their job for simply expressing their faith while in public,” said Kelly Shackelford, President and CEO of First Liberty. “By taking this important case, the Supreme Court can protect the right of every American to engage in private religious expression, including praying in public, without fear of punishment.”
The bottom line of very long court proceedings: The Coach’s actions were perceived as an endorsement by the state of religion, which is not protected but he 1st Amendment.
Paul Clement, former U.S. Solicitor General, partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and First Liberty volunteer attorney, said, “We look forward to presenting the Coach’s case, which goes to the heart of the First Amendment, to the Justices.”
Coach Kennedy added, “Six years away from the football field has been far too long. I am extremely grateful that the Supreme Court is going to hear my case and pray that I will soon be able to be back/
First Liberty also remembers another Christian Soldier, Now gone.
Here’s what happened. While holding open the door for a student one day in 2012, Walt commented to a student that “the first shall be last, but the last shall be first.” The curious student asked Walt several times for the source of the quote, and eventually Walt showed the student the quote in his personal Bible, so that the student could look it up at home. The student commented that he did not have a Bible at home, so Walt spontaneously gave the student his Bible.
For that, the school district fired him in 2013.