Joe Kennedy, a former assistant football coach at Bremerton High School in Bremerton, Wash., poses for a photo March 9, 2022, at the school’s football field. The Supreme Court has sided with a football coach from Washington state who sought to kneel and pray on the field after games. The court ruled 6-3 along ideological lines for the coach. The justices said the coach’s prayer was protected by the First Amendment. Photo: Ted S. Warren/AP
In 2000, in Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, 530 U.S. 290, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, condemned student invocations at home football games as violative of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. The court found that a pregame public prayer policy constituted an unconstitutional endorsement of religious speech notwithstanding that the speaker was selected by the student body. The court noted that the religious invocations had been allowed by “government policy … on government property … at government-sponsored school-related events.” Id. at 302.
On June 27, 2022, in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (Case No. 21-418), a decision authored by Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, the Supreme Court held by a 6-3 majority that a high school football coach had the right, pursuant to the Free Exercise Clause, to take a knee and pray on the 50-yard line immediately after the school’s football games.
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