Justices tackling case of praying football coach

WASHINGTON » The Supreme Court is tackling a dispute between publicschool officials and a former high-school football coach who wanted to kneel and pray on the field after games.

The case before the justices on Monday involves Joseph Kennedy, a former

football coach at Bremerton High School in Bremerton, Wash. For years, the coach would kneel at the center of the field following games and lead students in prayer. The school district eventually learned what he was doing and asked him to stop.

Kennedy’s lawyers say the Constitution’s freedom of speech and freedom of religion guarantees allow him to pray on the field, with

students free to join.

But the school district says Kennedy’s religious speech interfered with students’ religious-freedom rights, could have the effect of pressuring students to pray, and opened the district to lawsuits. The school district says it tried to work out a solution so Kennedy, who is Christian, could pray privately before or after the game, including on the field

after students left, but Kennedy’s lawsuit followed.

The case comes to the court at a time when conservative justices make up a majority of the court and have been sympathetic to the concerns of religious individuals and groups, including groups that brought challenges to coronavirus restrictions that applied to houses of worship.

But cases involving religion

can also unite the court. Last year, for example, the court unanimously sided with a Catholic fostercare agency that said its religious views prevent it from working with same-sex couples. Already this term in an 8-1 decision, the justices ruled for a Texas death-row inmate who sought to have his pastor pray aloud and touch him while his execution was carried out.