High School Football Coach Fired For Praying After Games Reinstated

 The US Supreme Court ruled in favor of praying football Coach Kennedy in a decision released in June 2022.

In a 6-3 vote the Thomas Court sided with Joseph Kennedy who lost his job in the Bremerton School District after he knelt at midfield after games to offer a quiet personal prayer.

** Here is the Supreme Court Decision.

And here is the ruling on Scribd.

 

Supreme Court Sides with Co… by Jim Hoft

Coach Kennedy was fired in 2015 for silently kneeling after football games on the 50-yard line. According to Kennedy the school said, “You can choose between your faith and your job,” and then fired him after he continued to silently pray after games.

 

As CBN News has reported, the post-game prayers caught on, spilling over to his players and even to opposing teams.

School officials worried that those prayers might give the appearance that the district approved of Coach Kennedy’s public prayers, creating a potential endorsement of religion. They eventually fired Kennedy, who calls that a violation of his right to free speech.

Coach Kennedy’s case reached the Supreme Court earlier this year.

In June the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of Coach Kennedy and his right to display his religious liberty in public.

This weekend attorneys for Kennedy announced that the coach will return to his assistant coaching position in the Bremerton School District by March 15, 2023.

The Kitsap Sun reports:

Attorneys for Joe Kennedy and the Bremerton School District have agreed that the former high school assistant football coach will return to the team no later than March 15, 2023, eight years after he was placed on leave and ultimately not rehired after praying with students at the 50-yard line following games

Details of how exactly Kennedy will resume his post-game prayers have yet to be finalized, however, despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in June that the district violated Kennedy’s religious freedom rights by prohibiting him from praying on the field following games.

Proposals for how to word the final order for the case are due by Nov. 8.