A high school football coach who was fired after leading his team in prayer following a game has been awarded a $1.7 million payout and reinstated.
According to the Seattle Times, Joseph Kennedy had taught at Bremerton High School since 2008 and had a post-game custom of praying on the 50-yard line.
Students and players began to notice what their coach was doing after each game and began to join him, and he began giving religiously themed presentations.
Kennedy was suspended in 2015 when the public school district requested him to stop praying and giving religious remarks after games.
According to the Seattle Times, Kennedy’s contract expired, and he did not reapply for his position – but he did file a lawsuit in protest of the termination.
His lawyer, First Liberty Institute, a non-profit Christian legal organization, took the case all the way to the Supreme Court.
During the trial, Kennedy claimed that he was praying privately and that his students chose to join him.
The school district claimed that by participating in the prayer and his religious comments, Kennedy violated the Constitution’s prohibition on government employees promoting religion.
In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court held that Kennedy was protected by the first amendment, overturning various lower court judgments that sided with the school district. Every Republican-appointed justice voted in favor of Kennedy, while Democrats sided with the school board.
According to the Seattle Times, Republic Justice Neil Gorsuch stated, “The Constitution and the best of our traditions counsel mutual respect and tolerance, not censorship and suppression, for religious and nonreligious views alike.”
Democratic Justice Sonia Sotomayor argued that the Constitution forbids administrators from praying “in the middle of a school event.”
Sotomayor said, citing the Bill of Rights, that pupils have a right to an education free of government-imposed religion.
“Official-led prayer strikes at the heart of our constitutional protections for students’ and their parents’ religious liberty,” Sotomayor wrote, adding that the court’s decision “elevates one individual’s interest in personal religious exercise, at the exact time and place of that individual’s choosing, over society’s interest in protecting the separation of church and state.”
Kennedy stated in a statement to the Times, “This is just so awesome.” All I’ve ever wanted to do was get back on the field with my teammates. This is just me thanking God after a football game for 15 seconds.”
Support Bremerton football coach Joe Kennedy and his continued prayer after games. #inspiring #freedomofreligion pic.twitter.com/C5P1ikjVLf
— Mario (@coachblauman) October 26, 2015
Kennedy wanted to move on from this trauma, saying that he planned to pray alone and that it was up to his students if they join him.
“It remains illegal and unethical for public school employees to coerce, pressure, persuade, or force students, players, staff, or other participants to engage in any religious practice as a condition of playing, employment, belonging, or participation,” said Washington’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.
The Bremerton school board decided unanimously to accept a settlement in which Kennedy was granted $1.7 million and was reinstated as a coach at the start of the next season.
