SCOTUS rules in favor of football coach fired for postgame prayers

(Image credit: Douglas Rissing / iStock)

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled 6-3 along ideological lines in favor of former high school football coach Joseph Kennedy, who was suspended then not rehired after leading postgame prayers on the 50-yard line.

"The Constitution and the best of our traditions counsel mutual respect and tolerance, not censorship and suppression, for religious and nonreligious views alike," Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the conservative majority.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who dissented along with Justices Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer, wrote that the ruling "sets us further down a perilous path in forcing States to entangle themselves with religion."

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This decision comes as the fourth major Supreme Court victory for conservatives in less than a week. The court ruled on Wednesday that a Maine tuition voucher program could not exclude religious schools. On Thursday, the court struck down a New York law restricting the concealed carry of handguns. The next day, conservative justices overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, returning the issue of abortion to the states.

Grayson Quay was the weekend editor at TheWeek.com. His writing has also been published in National Review, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Modern Age, The American Conservative, The Spectator World, and other outlets. Grayson earned his M.A. from Georgetown University in 2019.