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Page Number: 23.0

18 

KENNEDY v. BREMERTON SCHOOL DIST. 

Opinion of the Court 

App. 205; see Part I–B, supra.  We find it unlikely that Mr.
Kennedy was fulfilling a responsibility imposed by his em-
ployment by praying during a period in which the District
has acknowledged that its coaching staff was free to engage 
in all manner of private speech.  That Mr. Kennedy offered
his prayers when students were engaged in other activities 
like  singing  the  school  fight  song  further  suggests  that 
those prayers were not delivered as an address to the team,
but  instead  in  his  capacity  as  a  private  citizen.    Nor  is  it 
dispositive that Mr. Kennedy’s prayers took place “within
the office” environment—here, on the field of play.  Garcetti, 
547  U. S.,  at  421.    Instead,  what  matters  is  whether  Mr. 
Kennedy offered his prayers while acting within the scope
of his duties as a coach.  And taken together, both the sub-
stance of Mr. Kennedy’s speech and the circumstances sur-
rounding it point to the conclusion that he did not. 

In  reaching  its  contrary  conclusion,  the  Ninth  Circuit 
stressed  that,  as  a  coach,  Mr.  Kennedy  served  as  a  role
model  “clothed  with  the  mantle  of  one  who  imparts
knowledge and wisdom.”  991 F. 3d, at 1015.  The court em-
phasized that Mr. Kennedy remained on duty after games. 
Id., at 1016.  Before us, the District presses the same argu-
ments.  See  Brief  for  Respondent  24.  And  no  doubt  they
have a point.  Teachers and coaches often serve as vital role 
models.   But  this  argument  commits  the  error  of  positing 
an  “excessively  broad  job  descriptio[n]”  by  treating  every-
thing teachers and coaches say in the workplace as govern-
ment speech subject to government control.  Garcetti, 547 
U. S., at 424.  On this understanding, a school could fire a 
Muslim teacher for wearing a headscarf in the classroom or 
prohibit  a  Christian  aide  from  praying  quietly  over  her 
lunch in the cafeteria.  Likewise, this argument ignores the
District  Court’s  conclusion  (and  the  District’s  concession)
that Mr. Kennedy’s actual job description left time for a pri-
vate moment after the game to call home, check a text, so-