ATLANTA — The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) lawsuit filed on behalf of former Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran will proceed against the city following a ruling by a federal court.
The Atlanta Division of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia dismissed some claims but allowed the suit to go forward on Cochran’s primary claims of “retaliation, discrimination based on his viewpoint and the violation of his constitutionally protected freedom of religion, association and due process (firing without following proper procedure),” according to ADF.
Cochran, a deacon at 19,000-member Elizabeth Baptist Church affiliated with the Georgia Baptist Convention (GBC), was terminated Jan. 6, 2015, because of his personal statements on the gay lifestyle. He was unable to comment on the court’s ruling.
In its lawsuit, ADF alleges the city terminated Cochran “in retaliation for exercising his First Amendment right to free speech.” The lawsuit states, “a public employer may not terminate a public employee in retaliation for speech protected by the First Amendment.”
ADF senior counsel Kevin Theriot, in commenting on the ruling, said in late December 2015, “A religious or ideological test cannot be used to fire a public servant, but the city did exactly that, as the evidence and facts of this case clearly demonstrate.”
GBC has come out in strong support of Cochran, launching an online petition in January 2015 protesting Reed’s action. The petition, bearing signatures from more than 11,000 individuals nationwide and which called for Cochran to be reinstated, was delivered to the mayor’s office Jan. 13.
(BP)
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