High School Football Coach Fired for Praying Gets Reinstated

Joe Kennedy, a former high school football coach in Washington State who was fired for praying with players after games will be reinstated as an assistant coach at the same high school that fired him.

The former Bremerton High School assistant coach will make his triumphant return to the sidelines in March, according to recently released court documents.

Kennedy won a historic 6-3 Supreme Court decision in June when the court ruled that the school had violated the coach’s right to exercise his religion freely by firing him for praying after football games.

Coach Joe Kennedy leads players in prayer following a high school football game. (Meegan M. Reid/ Kitsap Sun via AP

“Respect for religious expressions is indispensable to life in a free and diverse Republic — whether those expressions take place in a sanctuary or on a field, and whether they manifest through the spoken word or a bowed head,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority. “Here, a government entity sought to punish an individual for engaging in a brief, quiet, personal religious observance doubly protected by the Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses of the First Amendment. And the only meaningful justification the government offered for its reprisal rested on a mistaken view that it had a duty to ferret out and suppress religious observances even as it allows comparable secular speech.”

Kennedy sued the Bremerton School District, claiming that the district had violated his First Amendment rights in 2015 after being fired for leading postgame prayers with athletes and students.

A joint filing from Kennedy’s attorneys and those of the school district says that “Bremerton School District shall not interfere with or prohibit Kennedy from offering a prayer consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion.”

However, the same filing stated, “The parties disagree on the specific wording of this portion of the injunction.”

While, according to the Kitsap Sun, neither side offered any clarification on the points of disagreement in the injunction, proposals for how Kennedy is to resume his postgame prayers are due on November 8th.

Both sides did agree, however, that Kennedy will return to his duties as an assistant coach no later than March 15, 2023.

“Since the Supreme Court released its decision in June, it was inevitable that Coach Kennedy would be back on the field,” said Jeremy Dys, senior counsel at First Liberty Institute, the group representing Kennedy. “We’re glad that the school district has agreed that by March 15, 2023, he’ll be back to coaching, just like he wanted when he filed the lawsuit.”

Throughout the process, Kennedy steadfastly maintained that he never coerced or pressured any students or student-athletes to join his postgame prayers. Instead, the coach asserts the prayers were “a covenant between me and God that after every game, win or lose, I’m going to do it right there on the field of battle.”

The coach added, “I had some kids that wanted to join, and they asked, and, of course, it’s a free country.”

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