The Supreme Court’s conservative justices seemed sympathetic 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.
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.
Katskee said the school district could discipline a coach for such actions because it “doesn’t want its event taken over for political speech.”The case brings complicated questions about the ability of public employees to live out their faith and the government’s competing responsibility to protect schoolchildren from coercion and to remain neutral on the subject of religion.
Katskee said Kennedy was functioning as a coach, not a private citizen. But even if it were private speech, he said, under Supreme Court precedent “Kennedy’s rights would still have to be balanced against the district’s interest in controlling its events and messages, protecting the religious freedom rights of the students and their parents, and managing the workplace.”Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh questioned that view of Kennedy’s actions.
Justices on both sides had plenty of hypotheticals, about coercion and about the rights of teachers and coaches. Praying or reading the Bible allowed before the bell rings? Saying a blessing? Holding religious youth meetings while a teacher is off duty?“If the coach is doing it while not making himself the center of attention at the center of the field, it’s perfectly fine,” Katskee replied.
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