By Jonathan Stempel
(Reuters) - A Washington State school district did not violate the religious and free speech rights of a high school football coach by forbidding him from kneeling in prayer at the 50-yard line after games, a federal appeals court ruled unanimously on Thursday.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the Bremerton school district would have violated the First Amendment's ban on government establishment of religion by letting Joseph Kennedy pray in view of spectators, and with students who might feel pressured to join him.
It rejected Kennedy's claim he was engaging in "private" prayer, citing his efforts to draw local and national support, and said district personnel had received "hateful" and "threatening" emails, letters and calls from around the country.
"Although there are numerous close cases chronicled in the Supreme Court's and our current Establishment Clause caselaw, this case is not one of them," Circuit Judge Milan Smith wrote for a three-judge panel.
Lawyers for Kennedy and those representing the school district did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Kennedy had been an assistant coach at Bremerton High School outside Seattle from 2008 to 2015, when he was put on leave. His contract later expired.
The coach's case drew support from religious conservatives and free speech advocates, and from 21 Republican state attorneys general who accused the school district of "censuring Kennedy as an excuse to prohibit his religious exercise."
In 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Kennedy's appeal from the 9th Circuit's earlier rejection of an injunction allowing him to pray.
Four conservative justices - Samuel Alito, joined by Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh - wrote separately that the appeals court's understanding of teachers' free speech rights was "troubling and may justify review in the future."
Thursday's decision upheld a March 2020 dismissal by U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton in Tacoma, Washington, who recently retired.
The case is Kennedy v Bremerton School District, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 20-35222.