Supreme Court football coach prayer

Members of the court's conservative majority indicated that the coach, Joseph A. Kennedy, had a constitutional right to kneel and pray at the 50-yard line ...

“This may be a case about facts and not really much about the law,” he said. “It is axiomatic that teachers do not ‘shed’ their First Amendment protections ‘at the schoolhouse gate,’” he wrote, quoting a 1969 Supreme Court decision. “This is not a case where the government took action because of coercion concerns,” he said. “It’s simply the coach going out to midfield, kneeling — taking a knee — and that’s it?” On Monday, Justice Stephen G. Breyer said the case, Kennedy v. The two sides sharply disagreed about how to characterize Mr. Kennedy’s actions. They suggested that the fear of coercion was a rationalization after the fact. “Yet the opinion in this case obliterates such constitutional protections by announcing a new rule that any speech by a public-school teacher or coach, while on the clock and in earshot of others, is subject to plenary control by the government.” He added that Mr. Kennedy’s conduct did not amount to coercion in any event. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. asked whether Mr. Kennedy would have been disciplined for protesting the invasion of Ukraine, climate change or racial injustice. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. asked whether Mr. Kennedy could have prayed aloud while standing with his arms outstretched. In his eight years as an assistant coach at Bremerton High School, Mr. Kennedy routinely offered prayers after games, with students often joining him.

BREMERTON, Wash. -- Former Bremerton High School assistant football coach Joseph Kennedy says he never wanted to become a symbol of the religious right, ...

If Kennedy wanted to continue praying after games, the letter concluded, he needed to do so separate from students and in a way that was not obvious to onlookers. I don't need a bunch of drones on the field." Opponents of Kennedy's on-field prayers argue that displays of religion by a coach at a public school isolate players who do not share the same faith. Cruz, who at the time was running for president, invited him to a rally within weeks of his firing. Soon, Kennedy retained a lawyer who sent a letter to school officials saying he was compelled to resume praying at midfield after every game. Bremerton's athletic director made clear to Kennedy the prayers were against the rules, prompting Kennedy to post on Facebook, "I think I just might have been fired for praying" -- although at that point he was still employed. By the time he scraped his way out of Bremerton High School, he was working in a restaurant and living on his own in a tiny, $300-a-month apartment. "My philosophy is that religious instruction is to be given by parents and it should be taught at home," he said. Kennedy's lawyers say in legal papers that the opposing coach approved of the prayer. During his postgame sessions, Kennedy would sometimes stand in the middle of a circle of players holding a helmet above his head. Bremerton public school officials removed him from his job in 2015 after he refused to stop his on-field prayers, which they said violated the Constitution's prohibition against government endorsement of religion. "The coach is a mixture of fear and awe.

The Supreme Court on Monday seemed inclined to rule for a Washington state high school football coach who lost his job after he refused to stop praying on ...

After he wasn’t asked back, Kennedy filed a lawsuit claiming violations of his right to free expression and religious freedom. “If a coach kneels down and prays, doesn’t invite or discourage players to join him, but is visible to people in the stands, he can be fired for that?” The school district eventually told him he should find a private location for praying, but he declined and continued his practice of dropping to one knee and praying silently on the 50-yard line. He announced his plans to continue praying and invited journalists and a state legislator to watch. During nearly two hours of courtroom argument, the conservative majority seemed prepared to rule that the coach was expressing his own private religious views and was not speaking for the school district. “I was just doing the free exercise of my religion and wasn’t going to go hide it because I work for the government,” he said in an NBC News interview.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday appeared receptive to making it easier for public school employees to more freely express their religious views, ...

Kennedy served as a coach at his alma mater, Bremerton High School, from 2008 to 2015. "He's the one who chose to publicize his prayer by doing it on the 50-yard line. After repeated defiance, Kennedy was placed on paid leave from his seasonal contract and did not re-apply as a coach the subsequent season. The school district notified Kennedy to stop the prayers while on duty, offering other private locations in the school as alternatives. They noted that his prayers occurred after games and seemed to view them as not part of his official duties. Alito asked Richard Katskee, a lawyer for the school board.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court will tackle a dispute between public school officials and a former high school football coach who wanted to kneel and ...

After Kennedy publicized his dispute with the school district in the media, spectators stormed the field to pray with him, knocking down students in the process. He noted that coaches have a power that is “awesome.” “The coach determines who makes varsity, who gets playing time" and who gets recommended for college scholarships, he said. The case has returned to the court at a time when the court's conservative majority has been sympathetic to the concerns of religious individuals and groups, such as groups that brought challenges to coronavirus restrictions that applied to houses of worship. The school tried to work out a solution so Kennedy could pray privately before or after the game. The Supreme Court previously declined to get involved in the case at an earlier stage in 2019. Yes, a lawyer for the school district said, because the district “doesn't want its event taken over for political speech.” Supreme Court justices discussed all those hypothetical scenarios Monday while hearing arguments about a former public high school football coach from Washington state who wanted to kneel and pray on the field after games. Former NFL player Tim Tebow, who was known for kneeling in prayer on the field, and Egyptian soccer star Mohamed Salah, a Muslim who kneels and touches his forehead to the ground after a goal, also came up. After losing his coaching job for refusing to stop kneeling in prayer with players and spectators on the field immediately after football games, Kennedy will take his arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, April 25, 2022, saying the Bremerton School District violated his First Amendment rights by refusing to let him continue praying at midfield after games. The justices and the lawyers arguing the case at various points discussed teachers and coaches who might wear ashes on their foreheads on Ash Wednesday, oppose racism by kneeling during the national anthem or express a political opinion by putting signs in their home's yard. Justice Amy Coney Barrett asked what if the coach had instead run an after-school religious youth group at his home, with students free to join or not. The court's conservative majority seemed sympathetic to the coach while its three liberals seemed more skeptical.

The Supreme Court's conservative justices seemed sympathetic to a former high school football coach who lost his job after leading postgame prayers at ...

Alito, Thomas, Kavanaugh and Justice Neil M. Gorsuch sympathized with Kennedy a couple of years ago when the case first reached the Supreme Court, but it was deemed premature for consideration. It has yet to rule in a case from Maine that make it easier for parents to use public funds to send their children to religious schools. But he said the school board was not allowing the simple act of taking a knee, and demanding the prayers take place away from players. But he said the school still must worry about student-athletes who would feel coerced to join. “Right after Tim Tebow scores the touchdown, he’s absolutely the center of attention. And Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. tried to pull the focus back, away from disagreements between Kennedy and the school officials. It’s simply the coach going out to midfield, kneeling — taking a knee, and that’s it?” Roberts asked. “He’s the one who’s going to give me an A or not.” “But that wasn’t good enough for Mr. Kennedy. He insisted on audible prayers at the 50-yard line with students. It calls for examining the interplay between the First Amendment’s establishment clause, which forbids government endorsement of religion, and its free speech and free exercise clauses, which prohibit government restraints on the private observance of religion. The judges cited Supreme Court precedent that public employees give up some of their First Amendment rights, because their speech can be construed as being that of the government. And Richard B. Katskee, representing the Bremerton school district, said officials had an obligation to protect students from being coerced into religious activity they did not want.

The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing the case of Joe Kennedy, a former assistant high school football coach who was suspended after praying on the field.

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The justices on Monday heard arguments from Joseph Kennedy, who lost his job at a public high school outside Seattle after repeatedly taking a knee alongside ...

The justices seemed divided along ideological lines in the case of Joseph Kennedy, a high school football coach who lost his job after praying on-field ...

Many legal observers expect the high court, with its conservative majority, to rule in Kennedy's favor, even though lower courts have ruled against him. "I don't know of any other religion that requires you to get at the 50-yard line, the place where postgame victory speeches are given," Sotomayor asked. When public school officials in Bremerton, Washington, asked Kennedy to stop praying publicly, he refused.

The Supreme Court will tackle a dispute between public school officials and a former high school football coach who wanted to kneel and pray on the field ...

The justices were wrestling with how to balance the religious and free speech rights of teachers and coaches with the rights of students not to feel pressured ...

He noted that coaches have a power that is “awesome.” “The coach determines who makes varsity, who gets playing time” and who gets recommended for college scholarships, he said. After Kennedy publicized his dispute with the school district in the media, spectators stormed the field to pray with him, knocking down students in the process. The case has returned to the court at a time when the court’s conservative majority has been sympathetic to the concerns of religious individuals and groups, such as groups that brought challenges to coronavirus restrictions that applied to houses of worship. The school tried to work out a solution so Kennedy could pray privately before or after the game. Supreme Court justices discussed all those hypothetical scenarios Monday while hearing arguments about a former public high school football coach from Washington state who wanted to kneel and pray on the field after games. Yes, a lawyer for the school district said, because the district “doesn’t want its event taken over for political speech.”