In what is clearly a victory for free speech and the free expression of religion, the City of Atlanta has agreed to settle with Kelvin Cochran for $1.2 million in damages and attorneys’ fees. For those who may not remember him, Mr. Cochran was the Atlanta Fire Chief who was suspended in November, 2014 for writing a book on his own time that expressed biblical views on marriage and sex. He was later fired in January, 2015. This happened at the height of the hysteria that said everyone must approve of same sex marriage.
The City had argued that Cochran failed to get permission to write the book on his own time. Cochran acknowledged the policy but said he had verbal approval. And that is where the battle commenced. The City maintained its abilities to carry out its mandated activities could be compromised by employees writing books on their own time.
After a long, slow march through the courts, in December, 2017, the US District Court ruled that the city’s pre-approval rule was unconstitutional. The court noted in its decision: “This policy would prevent an employee from writing and selling a book on golf or badminton on his own time and, without prior approval, would subject him to firing. It is unclear to the Court how such an outside employment would ever affect the City’s ability to function, and the City provides no evidence to justify it.”
There has been a steady erosion of an individual’s right to the free exercise of religion during the last two decades. The LBGT movement has been at the forefront of attempting to criminalize viewpoints that do not agree with their views of sexuality and marriage. The effort has been toward removing religion from the public square and relegating it to inside church walls on Sunday. This has been seen in various cases where government agencies have tried to destroy the livelihoods of Christian people who would not kowtow to the LGBT agenda.
Cochran’s case had garnered national attention. In September 2016 in Washington, DC, the National Religious Broadcasters presented its annual Faith & Freedom Award to Cochran because of his Christian faith and beliefs.
The City of Atlanta at least recognized a losing hand when they saw one. This resulted in their actions Monday where they agreed to the settlement.
As noted by Rick Moran at American Thinker:
Hopefully this result from the courts will be a wake-up call to other state and local governments who engage in the suppression of free speech and the free exercise of religion.