The Supreme Court heard arguments in the case of Joseph Kennedy, a former high school football coach who was fired for refusing to stop praying at the center of the field following games. It was a ritual he conducted for years, with his players eventually joining him. The Bremerton School District, located west of Seattle, Washington, eventually learned of the team prayer and asked Kennedy to stop leading them.
“Soon as the school district said ‘stop praying with the kids,’ that was it, no problem,” Kennedy said in an interview last month. “I stopped doing it, never prayed with any of my team again and went back to what I wanted to originally do, take a knee at the 50 after football game.”
While Kennedy stopped leading a team prayer, he did not stop praying himself. The district eventually put him on paid leave and fired him.
Lower courts have sided with the district so for, although the Supreme Court could change that. The school district argued Kennedy’s religious speech interfered with students’ own religious freedoms, potentially opening the district up to more lawsuits.
“If Kennedy wins, it would license so many teachers and coaches across the country to pressure students to join them in their prayer and violate their religious freedom,” Rachel Lester with Americans United for Separation of Church and State said. “It would practically sanction it.”
Kennedy insists he never cared whether students participated in the prayers and that he never asked them to join him. However, at least one player reported feeling coerced into participating for fear of losing playing time if he didn’t.
During Supreme Court arguments Monday, justices tried to strike a balance between the rights of a teacher or coach while praying with the rights of students not to feel pressured into participating. Justices looked at a variety of religious freedom scenarios, including:
- A coach who crosses himself before a game
- A math teacher reads the Bible aloud before the bell rings
- A coach who hosts an after-school Christian group in their home
- A coach or teacher wearing ashes on Ash Wednesday
A decision is expected before the court begins its summer recess.