{"id":900996,"date":"2021-10-20T07:44:21","date_gmt":"2021-10-20T11:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=900996"},"modified":"2021-10-20T07:44:23","modified_gmt":"2021-10-20T11:44:23","slug":"24-gop-ags-ask-scotus-to-review-case-of-high-school-coach-fired-for-praying-after-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/24-gop-ags-ask-scotus-to-review-case-of-high-school-coach-fired-for-praying-after-games\/","title":{"rendered":"24 GOP AGs Ask SCOTUS To Review Case Of High School Coach Fired For Praying After Games"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2F24-gop-ags-ask-scotus-to-review-case-of-high-school-coach-fired-for-praying-after-games%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=900996&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Dozens of GOP state attorneys general are pushing the Supreme Court to intervene in the case of a high school coach fired for praying after football games.<\/p>\n<p>Joseph Kennedy, a former assistant football coach at Bremerton School District in Washington, was suspended in October 2015 after he refused to stop praying, as well as inviting players to pray with him, at the 50-yard line after every football game.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile the district appreciates Kennedy\u2019s many positive contributions to the BHS football program \u2026 Kennedy\u2019s conduct poses a genuine risk that the district will be liable for violating the federal and state constitutional rights of students or others,\u201d the school district <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/coach-was-suspended-praying-now-hes-taking-action-james-barrett\">wrote<\/a> in a letter at the time.<\/p>\n<p>Kennedy took legal action against the school months later, filing an official complaint in December 2015. Kennedy sued the school for violating his First Amendment rights, but lost the case in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals when the court ruled in the school\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen Kennedy kneeled and prayed on the fifty-yard line immediately after games while in view of students and parents, he spoke as a public employee, not as a private citizen, and his speech therefore was constitutionally unprotected,\u201d the court <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/anti-religious-bigots-9th-circuit-rules-school-was-ben-shapiro\">wrote<\/a> in its decision, upholding the school\u2019s policy against its staff encouraging or discouraging students to engage in religious behavior.<\/p>\n<p>The attorneys general of 24 states filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court on Tuesday petitioning it to review Kennedy\u2019s case. The petition was led by Arizona\u2019s Mark Brnovich, Alaska\u2019s Treg Taylor, and Texas\u2019 Ken Paxton.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Coach Joseph Kennedy\u2019s religious discrimination claim against the school district, saying that because Coach Kennedy prayed in view of students, his prayers are considered government speech that the district can censor,\u201d Paxton\u2019s office said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texasattorneygeneral.gov\/news\/releases\/paxton-leads-multistate-coalition-defending-coachs-right-prayer\">press release<\/a>. \u201cThe coalition urges the Supreme Court to review and reverse that decision because of the serious First Amendment concerns it raises. The Ninth Circuit\u2019s conclusion threatens to make everything a public employee does while on the clock into government speech. In turn, that would require public employers to control their employees\u2019 every word in order to avoid liability.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Ninth Circuit\u2019s decision curtails the First Amendment liberties of public employees, which will deter individuals from seeking public employment to avoid being forced to give up their constitutionally protected liberties,\u201d the statement continued.<\/p>\n<p>The First Liberty Institute, a legal advocacy group representing Kennedy in the case, <a href=\"https:\/\/firstliberty.org\/cases\/coachkennedy\/\">gave<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dozens of GOP state attorneys general are pushing the Supreme Court to intervene in the case of a high school coach fired for praying after football games.Joseph Kennedy, a former assistant football coach at Bremerton School District in Washington, was suspended in October 2015 after he refused to stop praying, as well as inviting players to pray with him, at the 50-yard line after every football game.\u201cWhile the district appreciates Kennedy\u2019s many positive contributions to the BHS football program \u2026 Kennedy\u2019s conduct poses a genuine risk that the district will be liable for violating the federal and state constitutional rights of students or others,\u201d the school district wrote in a letter at the time.Kennedy took legal action against the school months later, filing an official complaint in December 2015. Kennedy sued the school for violating his First Amendment rights, but lost the case in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals when the court ruled in the school\u2019s favor.\u201cWhen Kennedy kneeled and prayed on the fifty-yard line immediately after games while in view of students and parents, he spoke as a public employee, not as a private citizen, and his speech therefore was constitutionally unprotected,\u201d the court wrote in its decision, upholding the school\u2019s policy against its staff encouraging or discouraging students to engage in religious behavior.The attorneys general of 24 states filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court on Tuesday petitioning it to review Kennedy\u2019s case. The petition was led by Arizona\u2019s Mark Brnovich, Alaska\u2019s Treg Taylor, and Texas\u2019 Ken Paxton.\u201cThe Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Coach Joseph Kennedy\u2019s religious discrimination claim against the school district, saying that because Coach Kennedy prayed in view of students, his prayers are considered government speech that the district can censor,\u201d Paxton\u2019s office said in a press release. \u201cThe coalition urges the Supreme Court to review and reverse that decision because of the serious First Amendment concerns it raises. The Ninth Circuit\u2019s conclusion threatens to make everything a public employee does while on the clock into government speech. In turn, that would require public employers to control their employees\u2019 every word in order to avoid liability.\u201d\u201cThe Ninth Circuit\u2019s decision curtails the First Amendment liberties of public employees, which will deter individuals from seeking public employment to avoid being forced to give up their constitutionally protected liberties,\u201d the statement continued.The First Liberty Institute, a legal advocacy group representing Kennedy in the case, gave the history of the former coach\u2019s court fight:The Bremerton (WA) School District suspended, and later fired, Coach Kennedy over his silent, 15-second prayer. First Liberty Institute filed a lawsuit against the school district, Kennedy v. Bremerton School District. A federal district court upheld Coach Kennedy\u2019s termination. On appeal, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit concluded that, because Coach Kennedy could be seen by students and fans engaging in religious expression, the school lawfully terminated his employment and his silent prayers were not protected by the Constitution. In January 2019, the Supreme Court of the United States declined to review Coach Kennedy\u2019s case but the case has returned to the District Court to answer some of the questions raised by the Justices. Upon re-hearing, the District Court and then Ninth Circuit again sided with the school district setting up a return to the U.S. Supreme Court.The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a member.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-900996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=900996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=900996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=900996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=900996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}