The Bremerton School District fired Joseph Kennedy, a high school football coach, after he knelt at midfield after games to offer a quiet personal prayer.

The US Supreme Court (6-3) held that terminating Kennedy violated the Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses of the First Amendment. Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (US Supreme Ct 06/27/2022) [PDF].

The District Court found that the “‘sole reason’” for the District’s decision to suspend Kennedy was its perceived “risk of constitutional liability” under the Establishment Clause for his “religious conduct” after three games in October 2015. The 9th Circuit affirmed, and denied a petition to rehear the case en banc over the dissents of 11 judges.

The US Supreme Court said, "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. The Constitution neither mandates nor tolerates that kind of discrimination. Mr. Kennedy is entitled to summary judgment on his First Amendment claims."

Three DISSENTERS argued that the Establishment Clause prohibits the District from firing Kennedy, and claimed that the majority disregarded "overwhelming precedents."