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Page Number: 13

8 

KENNEDY v. BREMERTON SCHOOL DIST. 

Opinion of the Court 

season  ended  in  November,  the  District  gave  him  a  poor
performance  evaluation.  Kennedy  v.  Bremerton  School 
Dist.,  869  F. 3d  813,  820  (CA9  2017).    The  evaluation  ad-
vised against rehiring Mr. Kennedy on the grounds that he
“ ‘failed to follow district policy’ ” regarding religious expres-
sion  and  “ ‘failed  to  supervise  student-athletes  after 
games.’ ”    Ibid.    Mr.  Kennedy  did  not  return  for  the  next 
season.  Ibid. 

II 
A 
After these events, Mr. Kennedy sued in federal court, al-
leging that the District’s actions violated the First Amend-
ment’s Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses.  App. 145, 
160–164.  He  also  moved  for  a  preliminary  injunction  re-
quiring  the  District  to  reinstate  him.    The  District  Court 
denied  that  motion,  concluding  that  a  “reasonable  ob-
server . . .  would  have  seen  him  as  . . .  leading  an  orches-
trated session of faith.”  App. to Pet. for Cert. 303.  Indeed, 
if the District had not suspended him, the court agreed, it
might  have  violated  the  Constitution’s  Establishment 
Clause.  See id., at 302–303.  On appeal, the Ninth Circuit 
affirmed.  Kennedy, 869 F. 3d, at 831. 

Following the Ninth Circuit’s ruling, Mr. Kennedy sought 
certiorari in this Court.  The Court denied the petition.  But 
JUSTICE ALITO, joined by three other Members of the Court, 
issued a statement stressing that “denial of certiorari does 
not signify that the Court necessarily agrees with the deci-
sion  . . .  below.”    Kennedy  v.  Bremerton  School  Dist.,  586 
U. S.  ___,  ___  (2019)  (slip  op.,  at  1).    JUSTICE  ALITO  ex-
pressed concerns with the lower courts’ decisions, including
the possibility that, under their reasoning, teachers might 
be “ordered not to engage in any ‘demonstrative’ conduct of 
a  religious  nature”  within  view  of  students,  even  to  the
point of being forbidden from “folding their hands or bowing
Id.,  at  ___ 
their  heads 

in  prayer”  before 

lunch.