Supreme Court Rules for Praying Football Coach

The U.S. Supreme Court, in the latest in a spate of decisions expanding religious liberty, ruled on Monday that a Washington state public school district violated the rights of a Christian high school football coach who was suspended for refusing to stop leading prayers with players on the field after games.

Broadening the religious rights of government employees, the justices sided with Joseph Kennedy, who until 2015 served as a part-time assistant football coach in the city of Bremerton and has since become a cause celebre for conservative Christian activists. The court’s conservative justices were in the majority in the 6-3 ruling, with its liberal members dissenting.

The decision, authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch, held that Kennedy’s actions were protected by his rights under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, which protects free speech and religious expression.

Gorsuch rejected the local school district’s concerns that in a public school setting Kennedy’s prayers and Christian-infused speeches could be seen as coercive to students or a governmental endorsement of a particular religion in violation of the First Amendment’s so-called establishment clause. – READ MORE