Football coach placed on leave for postgame midfield prayer
Joseph Kennedy, an assistant football coach at Bremerton High School in Washington, was placed on administrative leave in 2015 after refusing to stop offering a brief personal prayer at midfield following games. The district said the practice risked an Establishment Clause violation; Kennedy argued it was protected private religious expression. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6–3 in his favor in 2022.
Bremerton School District placed assistant coach Joseph Kennedy on paid administrative leave in October 2015 and declined to renew his contract after he continued a years-long practice of kneeling for a short personal prayer at the 50-yard line after football games. The district said the postgame prayers — which players sometimes joined — created Establishment Clause risk; Kennedy sued under the Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses. After lower courts ruled for the district, the Supreme Court reversed in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, 597 U.S. 507 (2022), holding the school could not discipline him for engaging in personal religious expression. He was reinstated in 2023 and briefly returned to coaching.