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Posted on 01/22/2022 6:30:10 PM PST by marshmallow
WASHINGTON (CNS) — The Supreme Court announced Jan. 14 that it would hear an appeal from a former high school football coach in Washington state who says his rights to freedom of speech and religion were violated when he was fired in 2015 for praying on the football field after team games.
Joseph Kennedy, former assistant coach at Bremerton High School, outside of Seattle, is asking the court to reverse a lower court decision in 2017 that sided with the school district. The decision said Kennedy had acted as a public official by praying with athletes who wished to join him in prayer in view of other students and parents.
Kennedy first appealed his case to the Supreme Court in 2019. The justices chose not to consider it but didn’t rule it out completely. Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, wrote in a separate concurrence that the time wasn’t right to review the case because it had “unresolved factual questions.”
First Liberty, a law firm specializing in religious freedom cases, is representing Kennedy, described on its website as “Coach Joe.” It also asks for support for Team Kennedy, saying it’s “game on” now at the Supreme Court and it includes a photo of Kennedy in front of the court with a football.
It is not clear if the court will hear oral arguments in this case in April or next term.
Kennedy, who said he made a personal commitment to thank God after each game, win or lose, since he started coaching in 2008, made it a point to kneel by the sideline after the game by himself for quiet prayer. Eventually he was joined in this practice by many of the team members.
One player’s parent said their son, an atheist, felt......
(Excerpt) Read more at osvnews.com ...
Progressives are looking for Freedom FROM religion.
But the Constitution is supposed to protect the opposite of that. A public High School, funded by tax payers, has no business punishing people who practice their religion.
Football players were not coerced so I don’t see an issue here. The Supreme Court will probably rule it like that.
Wow, this has to go to the Supreme Court. The Founding Fathers would be firing muskets if they were here now.
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That is my hometown HS, and the players loved Coach.
I was gonna say full back pay, but if that’s less than a million, let’s have some emotional distress judgment pay also.
the constitution was meant to prevent government from Forcing people to belong to an official government religion via coercion and penalty if they should decline to join- like they did to folks in england (which was why folks left there)
It was never meant to deny people their Right to display their religion in public- not even government officials- People have a right to belong to and to display any religion they like- what they can’t do is force others to join or be punished for refusing-
praying on a field is Not forcing anyone to join or be punished-
Alabama on a Friday night. So sad so wrong.
If this were just about Coach Joe praying on the side of the field after a game, I think it would be a slam dunk that the School District should not have fired him.
I fear that there may have been some degree of insubordination regarding his response to threats by the School District.
Having said that, I do hope the Supreme Court clarifies that prayer is not something that a business (or government agency) can interfere too much with. Although, I am not keen on the idea of Muslims being allowed to take prayer breaks during work that are separate from their allowed federal two breaks plus a lunch break during an 8 hour day. I also am not keen on the idea of allowing loud Muslim call for prayer to played at all hours of the day.
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