Supremes rule for 50-yard-line prayer Coach gets his Hail Mary
The Supreme Court on Monday ruled in favor of a Washington state football coach who sought to kneel and pray on the field after games — a decision he called “great news for the entire nation.”
The court ruled 6-3 along ideological lines that former high school football coach Joe Kennedy’s prayer was protected under the First Amendment.
“The Constitution and the best of our traditions counsel mutual respect and tolerance, not censorship and suppression, for religious and nonreligious views alike,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the majority opinion.
Kennedy, who was put on leave in 2016 after he continued to pray despite being told it was against the Bremerton School District’s policies, welcomed the news.
“I’m just so grateful that this long, hard fight is finally over and we won,” he told Washington’s KING 5 news during an interview conducted alongside his attorney. “Thank God [and] everybody that supported me throughout this. I mean it’s just great news for the entire nation.”
The district told Kennedy his prayers could not be conducted alongside students and that any of his personal religious observances needed to be done in such a way that they could not be seen as encouragement.
Asked why he didn’t pray privately after being told to do so by the district, the coach balked.
“What kind of message does that send, that I should hide who I am and my beliefs?” he said. “Bremerton is one of the most diverse schools and inclusive schools around, and everybody should be free to be themselves, no matter what it is.”
Booted in 2016
Kennedy had begun praying by himself in 2008, eventually allowing students to join in with him. He eventually led prayers in the locker room.
After the school district warned him to stop in 2015, Kennedy said he prayed without his students but still at the 50-yard line.
He was put on leave in 2016, and his contract was not renewed.
Kennedy said Monday that he was hoping for a call that his job was waiting for him. “I will be on the first flight as soon as they say that I can come back,” he said.
He added that if he came back, he would continue to pray publicly but without his team.
“The way it all started was just by myself — it was a moment between me and God, and the kids started joining,” he said.
“Only thing I would do different is it would go back to the way it was at the very beginning, a private prayer and me [thanking] God for what those guys just did on the football field.”
Asked if he felt that his public prayer could have put pressure on any of his students, he said he knew that hadn’t been the case.
“That was the great thing about our team — when you’re that close to such a community, you know the kids and you know the parents, and that was never the case and would never be the case,” he said.
“Telling someone they need to do it is just as bad as telling them that they can’t do it,” he added.
At least one player anonymously reported that he felt he would lose playing time if he didn’t join in the coach’s prayer.
Attorneys for the district argued that they had no problem letting the coach pray apart from students or letting him return to the field after the students had gone home. Letting him pray at the 50yard line immediately after a game and in front of the school community, however, risked being seen as a government endorsement of religion, they said.