Livin' On A Prayer: Supreme Court To Hear Case Of Football Coach Who Lost Job For Praying

• Published date: 31 January 2022
• Law Firm: Husch Blackwell LLP
• Author: John W. Borkowski, Aleksandra O. Rushing and Claire Hawley

On January 14, 2022, the Supreme Court granted certiorari to determine whether a school district was within its rights in telling a coach not to continue to kneel and pray at the 50-yard line after his team's games.

Background

From 2008 to 2015, Joseph Kennedy worked as an assistant varsity football coach for a public school, Bremerton High School. As a devout Christian, Kennedy had a practice of kneeling at mid-field to pray immediately after each game. These prayers were usually silent and lasted 30 seconds, but they were in full view of players and spectators. Over time, players began joining in and the prayers evolved into short motivational speeches with religious overtones, delivered at the fifty-yard line while football players knelt around the coach. At least one player privately complained about participating in the prayers but feared he would lose playing time if he did not join. Bremerton School District's ("the District") policies for religious-related activities and practices did not explicitly address religious expression by on-duty staff, but the District twice directed Kennedy to avoid demonstrative religious activity when in view of students. The coach posted on Facebook that he "might have been fired for praying" and decried the District's directives in local and national media...