The Supreme Court on Tuesday decided to sidestep the high-profile free speech case of a Washington state high school football coach who was fired for refusing to stop kneeling in prayer on the field with his athletes.
In a statement agreeing with the court’s refusal to hear the appeal of Joseph Kennedy, the Bremerton High School assistant coach who was dismissed in 2015, conservative Justice Samuel Alito — joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh — said the denial did not mean they agreed with a lower court’s position.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled in 2017 that the Bremerton School District didn’t have to reinstate Kennedy because he was acting in an official capacity by praying with some athletes at the 50-yard line after games, a practice he’d adopted since 2008, as he was wearing school attire and he could be seen by other students and parents.
The lower court found Kennedy’s actions could “promote disunity along religious lines and risks alienating valued community members from an environment that must be open and welcoming to all.”
“What is perhaps most troubling about the Ninth Circuit’s opinion is language that can be understood to mean that a coach’s duty to serve as a good role model requires the coach to refrain from any manifestation of religious faith — even when the coach is plainly not on duty,” Alito wrote Tuesday, describing the lower court’s rationale as “highly tendentious.” “I hope that this is not the message that the Ninth Circuit meant to convey, but its opinion can certainly be read that way.”
Alito said more facts regarding the Bremerton School District’s handling of the situation were needed before the Supreme Court could consider the First Amendment issues at play. It remained unclear whether Kennedy was pushed out due to concerns he was neglecting his duties or that he made it seem like the school district endorsed his religious beliefs, he wrote.
