High school football coach back on field after Supreme Court ruling.
A high school coach returns to the game on the first of September after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of his First Amendment right to pray on the football field.
Joe Kennedy, a twenty-year Marine veteran and assistant coach for the Bremerton High School (BHS) football team in Bremerton, Washington, was suspended in 2015 for his custom of taking a knee and praying midfield after games to offer thanks, whether his team won or lost.
The school district’s lawyers took issue with his ceremony of seven years and warned that if he didn’t stop, he’d be suspended, but Mr. Kennedy wouldn’t be deterred.
“As a Marine veteran who fought in the first Gulf War, it really rubbed me the wrong way because I served 20 years to support and defend the Constitution,” Mr. Kennedy told The Epoch Times. “Now, I’m being told it doesn’t apply to me. There’s something fundamentally wrong with that. If I can’t express my First Amendment rights as an American, imagine what they are doing to everybody else.”
Though it would have been easier to comply, Mr. Kennedy said that’s essentially what’s wrong with society today.
“Nobody wants to take a stand,” he said. “Well, I wasn’t going to just sit back and let them demolish my rights.”
Inspired by the Christian film “Facing the Giants,” Mr. Kennedy started coaching in 2008.
“Just like in the movie, I gave the glory to God after every game, and that’s what I did,” he said. “I would be at the 50-yard line and take a knee to thank God.”
Separation of Church and State Questioned
According to First Liberty Institute (FLI), the religious freedom legal organization that represented Mr. Kennedy, the school district lawyers had concluded that Mr. Kennedy’s prayer violated school policy prohibiting religious activity intermingled with student activities and decided further that such activity “should be non-demonstrative.”
Mr. Kennedy had been offering motivational speeches to the students who gathered for prayer after the game.
“Those speeches sometimes included religious content and a short prayer, but he never coerced, required, or asked any student to pray or told any student that it was important that they participate in any religious activity,” FLI said.
After a complaint from the coach of an opposing team, the school district lawyers were made aware of the post-game gatherings, which led to their request that he discontinue praying with students.
Mr. Kennedy stopped, and at the next game, he ceased public praying altogether.
“On the way home from the game, he felt upset that he had broken the commitment he had made to God at the outset of his coaching career,” FLI said. “So, he turned the car around and returned to the field. Coach Kennedy waited until everyone left both the field and stadium, then walked to the 50-yard line alone and knelt in silent prayer.”
The district lawyers became concerned that the midfield prayer, even without the participation of the students, was risking being perceived as a government endorsement of religion, thus violating the separation of church and state, so they drew a line in the sand.
The LBI requested that the district grant Mr. Kennedy a religious accommodation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act that prohibits employment discrimination based on, among others, religious beliefs, which was later denied.
At another game, Mr. Kennedy continued his tradition of praying after the game.
“While he was kneeling with his eyes closed, coaches and players from the opposing team, along with members of the public, decided to join him on the field and to kneel beside him,” FLI said. “Coach Kennedy did not ask anyone to join him and did not know that anyone would join him.”
Despite his compliance with school policy regarding public prayer, the district enacted more strict rules prohibiting him from engaging in religious activity within the view of the public, FLI said.
“The only ‘accommodation’ the district offered to Coach Kennedy was to permit him to pray in secret in a ‘private location within the school building, athletic facility[,] or press box,’ FLI said.
‘Unwilling to Break His Commitment’
But Mr. Kennedy persisted, FLI said.
“Unwilling to break his commitment to God yet again, when the next game ended and the players began engaging in other post-game traditions, Coach Kennedy knelt alone to offer a brief, silent prayer of thanks at the 50-yard line,” FLI said.
Two days later. Mr. Kennedy was put on paid administrative leave and barred from participating in the football games until he “affirms his intention to comply with the District’s directives.”
“But those directives went against my faith and my constitutional right as an American, and I wasn’t about to give that up,” Mr. Kennedy said.
The Legal Battle
FLI filed the lawsuit (pdf) against the school district in federal court in 2016, declaring that the school district’s actions violated his First Amendment rights.
In addition, FLI asked for a preliminary injunction for the district to reinstate him.
District Judge Ronald Leighton denied the motion, a ruling which was backed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Milan Smith.
According to the Associated Press, Judge Leighton compared Mr. Kennedy’s custom to a director who prays centerstage after a play.
“A reasonable onlooker would interpret their speech from that location as an extension of the school-sanctioned speech just before it,” Judge Leighton said.
In 2018, the Supreme Court denied the initial request to hear the case, but Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh questioned the lower court’s interpretation of the First Amendment rights within the school system, calling the Ninth Circuit’s ruling “troubling.”
The Supreme Court returned the case to the district court, where it, and later the Ninth Circuit, again sided with the school district, prompting FLI to refile the case with the Supreme Court.
Lemon v. Kurtzman
The Supreme Court overturned Lemon v. Kurtzman (pdf), which had been used as a precedent when arguing in opposition to the freedom of religious expression in government settings.
“What most people don’t know is that the Court’s final decision has much greater ramifications nationwide,” said Mr. Kennedy’s attorney, Kelly Shackelford.
Ms. Shackelford said Lemon v. Kurtzman had been cited “more than seven thousand times” over the last 50 years, which had promoted hostility toward religious expression.
The 1971 case revolved around state statutes in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island that permitted funding to religious schools that would pay for teachers’ salaries, textbooks, and instructional material.
Alton Lemon and other appellants sued Pennsylvania Superintendent of Public Instruction David Kurtzman, challenging the constitutionality of aid to nonpublic, religious schools.
The Supreme Court sided with Lemon and the other appellants.
According to Ms. Shackelford, the case has since been lorded over those who have argued for their right to freely express their religious beliefs.
“Thanks to Coach Kenney, Lemon is now dead,” Ms. Shackelford concluded.
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