Joseph Kennedy: Washington high school football coach fired for midfield prayer wins $2M settlement, returns to work
BREMERTON, WASHINGTON: A high school football coach successfully protected his right to pray on the field after a Supreme Court ruled in his favor on Thursday, March 23. This comes after Joseph Kennedy sued a school district for firing him in 2015 saying that it was unlawful and violated his First Amendment rights. The settlement has reached nearly $2 million.
The board of Bremerton School District in Washington sided with the former coach and approved a $1,775,000 settlement payment to attorneys for him. Kennedy will also return as an assistant football coach for Bremerton High School for the 2023 season, according to reports. He will also receive a stipend of $5,304 for the season, the district said in a statement. The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of the coach as his right to kneel with athletes and pray on the field after games was protected by the Constitution in June 2022. "It is just incredible to know that I did nothing wrong. Everything I did was fine," he told the Daily Mail immediately after the verdict.
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Together, we WON for Coach Kennedy at the Supreme Court! Stay tuned as we unfold the victory! pic.twitter.com/HavmkzzexX
— First Liberty Institute (@1stLiberty) June 27, 2022
Kennedy was placed on paid leave before getting fired
Following the district's settlement, school board president Alyson Rotter said, "We look forward to moving past the distraction of this nearly 8-year legal battle so that our school community can focus on what matters most: providing our children the best education possible." Kennedy, who started coaching at the school in 2008, prayed with students for years without issue until 2015. The school district apparently received complaints in the year, saying that some athletes felt pressured to join in the prayers.
He was then asked to stop over concerns that the district could be sued for violating students' religious freedom rights. Although the school asked him to stop kneeling and praying on the field while still "on duty" as a coach after the games, Kennedy wanted to continue it. When he continued to do so, the school put him on paid leave before he was recommended to not be hired again.
Kennedy was not responsible for students after the game was over
According to Daily Mail, the Supreme Court ruling in the case pitted the conservative justices in the majority and against the liberals in dissent who argued the decision "sets us further down a perilous path in forcing states to entangle themselves with religion." The justices in the majority stressed that the coach's prayers came after the games were over. Thus, he wasn't responsible for students and was free to do other things. Justice Neil Gorsuch, who wrote for the majority in the ruling, declared: "The Constitution and the best of our traditions counsel mutual respect and tolerance, not censorship and suppression, for religious and nonreligious views alike." He noted that the coach "prayed during a period when school employees were free to speak with a friend, call for a reservation at a restaurant, check email, or attend to other personal matters" and "while his students were otherwise occupied."
'Personal act of worship'
Kennedy also insisted that he has never put any pressure on his students to join him in prayer, stating that it had been a personal act of worship. "I had a commitment with God that I'd give him thanks after every football game, win or lose. And that's the way I started out," he said last June.
