Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore spoke out Thursday about a Seattle-area football coach who lost his job after praying with his team on the field, focusing his attack on "do-nothing Congress."

The contract for Joe Kennedy, who was the coach at Bremerton High School, was not renewed after the 2015 season. He subsequently filed a lawsuit and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that Kennedy's prayer with his players was not protected by the First Amendment.

According to a report by The Seattle Times, the three-judge panel ruled that the coach took advantage of his position to "press his particular views upon impressionable and captive minds before him."

Kennedy first began the practice of praying with his team on the field in 2008. It was brought to the attention of Bremerton school district officials in 2015 and the coach was ordered to stop.

Moore, who was removed as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in 2003 for refusing to remove a monument with the Ten Commandments from the Supreme Court building, blistered the ruling in a statement as well as Congress.

"Our do-nothing Congress seems to forget that lower courts are fully the creation of the legislative branch of government," Moore said. "That rogue lower court panels, such as the Ninth Circuit, have gotten this far in trampling on our most sacred and foundational rights - without facing any opposition from Congress - is a testament to our lack of principles, disregard for the Constitution, and ignorance of our own power.

"The same courts that have unilaterally granted foreign nationals a religious liberty right to immigrate are now preventing American Christians from praying."

Moore is in a Sept. 26 runoff for the GOP nomination with U.S. Sen. Luther Strange. The winner will face Democrat Doug Jones in the Dec. 12 general election.



"When I get to the Senate, the days of silent submissiveness from the legislative branch will be over," Moore said. "We will remind the courts, especially the lower courts, how they were created and directed. We will restore the courts to their proper role and we will protect religious liberty.



"Religious liberty is the civil rights issue of our time and judicial supremacy is the biggest challenge to righting that ship. It begins by members of Congress taking our oath to the Constitution seriously."