Eight years after losing his job for praying on the football field, coach Joe Kennedy is rehired by the School District of Bremerton, Washington, USA. He won the religious liberty case before the Supreme Court in June after a lengthy court battle. In 2015, he lost his contract with the school, after refusing to stop praying on the 50 yards after games.
“Kennedy is expected to be reinstated to his previous role as assistant coach on the Bremerton High School football team by March
”, determines the agreement. The Bremerton School District said in a statement that it has agreed to return the job and that “Kennedy will be able to pray.”
In June, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the opinion for the 6-3 majority of the Court, holding that both the free exercise and free speech provisions of the First Amendment protect the right to Kennedy to pray on the field.68166497076709949446816649707670994944″I always wanted to go back to games with my boys,” Kennedy said after the Supreme Court ruling. Jeremy Dys, a lawyer for the First Liberty Institute, a national legal organization that protects religious freedom and represents the coach, noted that “it was inevitable that he would return to the field.”
6816649707670994944Kennedy sued after school officials changed school district policies to enact a new ban on “demonstrative religious activity, readily observable by students and the public in attendance” . As a “compensation,” Kennedy was told that he could pray after the games in a “private location within the school building, sports facility, or press room.”
