The United States Supreme Court has ruled in favor of a Washington high school football coach in his case to pray on the field after games.
By a 6-3 vote, the justices ruled that Joseph Kennedy of Bremerton High School has the right to pray on the field immediately after games. Kennedy claimed that the Bremerton School District violated his religious freedom by not allowing him to pray publicly.
SCOTUS sides with a high school football coach in a First Amendment case about prayer at the 50-yard-line. In a 6-3 ruling, SCOTUS says the public school district violated the coach’s free speech and free exercise rights when it barred him from praying on the field after games.
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) June 27, 2022
Kennedy’s contract wasn’t renewed after the 2015 season. That year, the suburban Seattle school district asked the coach to stop praying on the field at the 50-yard line after games.
Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the majority opinion, “The Constitution and the best of our traditions counsel mutual respect and tolerance, not censorship and suppression, for religious and nonreligious views alike.”
