Football coach fired for praying

It looks like the US Supreme Court is going to have a second shot at a case where a high school football coach got fired after he refused to stop his practice of saying a prayer right after the game on the 50 yard line surrounded by his players, surrounded by people from the stands. Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (9th Cir 03/18/2021).

The first time this case went up to the Supreme Court, the lower courts had denied the coach an injunction against the school.

All the Supreme Court did was decide not to decide the case. Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (US Supreme Court cert denied 01/22/2019)

But four of the Justices indicated that they were quite critical of the way the 9th Circuit had analyzed this case. So we may see it go up again.

The case really involves a conflict between the coach’s free exercise of religion and the school district’s interest in not appearing to establish a religion by endorsing this particular practice. And the 9th Circuit held simply that the school district had a compelling interest in ensuring that they were not engaged in violating the 1st Amendment which prohibits the establishment of a religion.

Interesting case.

Next stop — Supreme Court.