FILE – 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 Monday the coach’s prayer was protected by the First Amendment. Photo: Ted S. Warren/AP
A Washington state public school district violated the constitutional rights of a former football coach by barring him from praying on the field at the end of games, a divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday.
In a 6-3 decision, Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the majority, said the school district mistakenly believed that allowing Joseph Kennedy to offer prayers on the 50-yard line would violate the First Amendment’s establishment clause. Instead, the district violated Kennedy’s rights under the First Amendment’s free speech and free exercise of religion clause.
