Who Is Joe Kennedy?

            My VIP for this week is Coach Joe Kennedy who has been fighting a battle for seven years for the right to pray. The Supreme Court heard his case today to determine if public school employees can silently pray in the view of students while on the clock. 

“The only thing I’m asking the Supreme Court is that I get to be a coach, and I get to thank God afterwards,” Kennedy says.

In 2015, Kennedy lost his job as an assistant football coach at a high school in Washington state after taking a knee in silent prayer on the 50-yard line after games.

From the time he began coaching in 2008 at Bremerton High School, about 30 miles west of Seattle, Kennedy made it his practice to thank God after every game.

“I had a covenant with God from the very beginning when I accepted the [coaching] job that I would give him the credit, and thank him after every game, win or lose,” Kennedy told The Daily Signal during an exclusive interview in Bremerton last month.

Eventually, players became curious about what Kennedy was doing at the end of every game, and some asked whether they could join him.

“This is a free country, it’s America, you can do whatever you want to do,” Kennedy remembers telling his players.

            The Bremerton School District eventually learned of the happenings and told Kennedy that he could not pray with his players. Even though no one had complained about the practice, Kennedy agreed to stop it and never prayed with the players again. However, he did continue his silent prayers on the field. Then attorneys for the school district got involved and told him that he could not pray by himself where people could see him.

            The school district offered several private places where Kennedy could pray, but they would be inconvenient and cause him to leave the field and then return to his players. Too much time would be involved. When Kennedy refused to stop praying on the 50-yard line, he was put on administrative leave. “Do not rehire” was stamped on his personnel evaluation. That was the point when Kennedy decided to file a lawsuit.

            The Supreme Court is being asked to consider “a very narrow question”: can a football coach “be fired from their job if [he] engages in a private prayer on one knee at the 50-yard line.” We will know the court’s decision by the end of June.