The U.S. bishops’ conference had a friend-of-the-court brief filed on its behalf on March 2 in support of a former high school football coach who sued a school district after he lost his job in 2015 for refusing to stop kneeling and praying on the fifty-yard line after games.
Joseph Kennedy, the coach, eventually sued the Bremerton School District in Washington State in 2016 over its stance that he couldn’t continue his post-game ritual. The Supreme Court agreed to take up the case, Kennedy v. Bremerton School District on Jan. 14.
“The constitution exists to protect public expressions of faith, not to stop Americans from praying in public,” Lori Windham, senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty said in a March 2 statement. “The idea that high school football players can handle a tough game, but not the sight of someone kneeling in prayer at the end of the night is ridiculous.”
Source: US bishops back high school football coach in Supreme Court prayer case