In a 6-3 decision authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Joe Kennedy, an assistant football coach for a Washington state high school who was fired by his district for praying on the field after games.
“Kennedy's private religious exercise did not come close to crossing any line one might imagine separating protected private expression from impermissible government coercion,” wrote Gorsuch. Kennedy did not ask or require his players to join him in his brief postgame prayers, although he did allow them to do so.
“Learning how to tolerate speech or prayer of all kinds is ‘part of learning how to live in a pluralistic society,’ a trait of character essential to ‘a tolerant citizenry,'” continued Gorsuch in the opinion, before going on to admonish the district for having given preference to “secular activity.”
Kennedy’s case has garnered significant attention from religious liberty and progressive activists alike, with the latter accusing Kennedy of breaching the “separation of church and state.” Justice Sonia Sotomayor penned the dissent — joined only by Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan — to Gorsuch’s opinion.
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