Joseph Kennedy, the high school football coach who lost his job in 2015 for praying on the field after games, will be reinstated by March 15, 2023, reports the Kitsap Sun.
The decision comes after the U.S. Supreme Court in June ruled in Kennedy’s favor, 6-3, that the coach was protected by the Constitution when he knelt and prayed aloud at the 50-yard-line post-game, sometimes with his players.
A joint stipulation filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington stated that Kennedy “is to be reinstated to his previous position as assistant coach of the Bremerton High School football team on or before March 15, 2023.”
He is also entitled to reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs.
“Bremerton School District shall not interfere with or prohibit Kennedy from offering a prayer consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion,” the attorneys wrote in the filing detailing one of the points of contention remaining in the case, but then added: “The parties disagree on the specific wording of this portion of the injunction.”
Lower courts for years had repeatedly sided with the Bremerton School District in the case. Kennedy said his routine typically lasted less than a minute and he insisted his prayers were brief, private, individual acts of faith.
The school district argued that student participation breached constitutional prohibitions against the promotion of religion by government officials.
“This is a right for everybody. It doesn’t matter if you’re this religion or that religion or have no faith whatsoever,” Kennedy told ABC News during an interview earlier this year. “Everybody has the same rights in America.”
Reporting from Newsmax.
