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Paraphrase of USA TODAY High School Sports’ “Wash.

Football Coach Fired for 


Praying with Team Heads to Court” 

After high school football games in Seattle, Washington, Joe Kennedy 


would kneel on the field before reciting a prayer, an action banned by his 
employers. Due to the repeated offenses, he was released from his position and 
placed on paid leave. When the Bremerton School District refused to renew his 
contract, Kennedy took the district to court under the accusation that they had 
violated his 1st amendment rights of Freedom of Speech and Religion. Expecting 
to win the case, he demanded that the school reinstated his position and allowed 
him to exercise his beliefs as a post-game tradition. In response to the case, 
many school officials were present at the hearing. To support Kennedy, Rebekah 
Ricketts of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLC provided many arguments. To counter 
Kennedy’s legal team, Michael Tierney stood as an attorney for the district along 
with Andrew Nellis of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. As 
part of a three-judge panel in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Morgan 
Christen and Judge Milan Smith Jr. were present.  

Joe Kennedy believed that his right to free speech and to exercise his 
religious beliefs were violated as a result of the prayer ban. Ricketts argued that 
the action in question was merely taking a knee on the field to recite a private 
prayer. In response, the judges questioned the difference between public and 
private prayer. To further accentuate their point, they alluded to a past event on 
October 16 where Kennedy kneeled on the field and said an audible prayer in the 
midst of many players. In opposition, Ricketts stated that on the night of the 
following game, Kennedy purposely distanced himself from the team that 
remained at the sidelines before performing his prayer. The district countered by 
saying that Kennedy’s tradition violated their policy pertaining to the separation 
of church and state, also known as The Establishment Clause. Since his 
occupation put him in a position where even the most subtle religious institution 
influences students to conform, he should have avoided any religious practice in 
the presence of students that could have been viewed as coercive. In response to 
the judges previous inquiry, Tierney declared that any setting where students 
were present was deemed as public. Judge Milan Smith Jr. then questioned why 
Kennedy’s tradition, which began in 2008, was not challenged by the district until 
2015, after it was mentioned by a visiting school’s official. To this, Tierney 
responded that when Kennedy was previously seen surrounded by numerous of 
players, both from his team and occasionally the opposing team, the district 
mistook it for merely an inspirational speech. As Kennedy’s case caught the 
attention of many outside organizations, Hiram Sasser, deputy chief counsel for 
First Liberty Institute, claimed that the case set a precedent for all religious 
expression performed privately by educational employees. In addition, Sasser 
argued that the ruling would ban many religious traditions, such as wearing a 
hijab or yarmulke, thus stripping millions of Americans in the educational field of 
their religious liberty rights. 

This article is a reflection of a 1st Amendment provision, which states that 


the Government may not prohibit the practice of a religion. In this story, a 
Christian football coach was banned from praying on the field after a game, an 
act that later got him placed on paid leave. The controversy was between Joe 
Kennedy and the Bremerton School District. The main question was whether the 
prohibition of Kennedy’s religious expression was a violation of his 1st 
Amendment rights. 

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