COURTS & LAW

Supreme Court majority sympathetic to coach who prayed at midfield

But questions about Joe Kennedy’s actions and the school district’s reasons for disciplining him might lead to narrow resolution

By Robert Barnes
Yesterday at 6:32 p.m. EDT



Former Bremerton High School assistant football coach Joe Kennedy takes a knee in front of the Supreme Court on Monday. (Win Mcnamee/Getty Images)

The Supreme Court’s conservative justices seemed sympathetic Monday to a former high school football coach who lost his job after leading postgame prayers at midfield, but the path to a decision is complicated by both the coach’s actions and the school district’s purported reason for disciplining him.

Joseph A. Kennedy’s lawyer said the assistant coach was asking only for a private moment to take a knee and express gratitude to God on the gridiron after a game. But lawyer Paul D. Clement acknowledged that Kennedy’s actions at Bremerton High School near Seattle had at times gone far beyond that, including leading players and others in prayer.

And Richard B. Katskee, representing the Bremerton school district, said officials had an obligation to protect students from being coerced into religious activity they did not want. But justices said that might be rationalization, because the officials’ complaint to Kennedy was that his actions would be seen as government speech, violating constitutional commands against government endorsement of religion.

“This may be a case about facts and not really much about law,” said Justice Stephen G. Breyer, beginning his last week of oral arguments before his scheduled retirement at the end of the term. ... In general, Breyer and the court’s other two liberals seemed to think Bremerton officials had tried to accommodate Kennedy’s request to pray silently after games, but that what he really wanted was a public platform to involve players and the greater community.

[Supreme Court takes up case of a coach and his prayers on 50-yard line]

{snip}

Monday’s case is Kennedy v. Bremerton School District.

By Robert Barnes
Robert Barnes has been a Washington Post reporter and editor since 1987. He joined The Post to cover Maryland politics, and he has served in various editing positions, including metropolitan editor and national political editor. He has covered the Supreme Court since November 2006. Twitter https://twitter.com/scotusreporter