Former Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran, fired by Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed earlier this year in violation of his rights to free speech and freedom of religion, won a legal round the other day in his federal civil rights suit against the city of Atlanta.. Reed’s lawyers were asking that a federal judge dismiss Cochran’s complaint on the weakest of grounds– that a book that this devout Christian self-published while off-duty is not “protected speech.” In response, the court soundly rejected Reed’s attempt to quash the suit and Cochran’s constitutionally-guaranteed freedoms.
Cochran’s book, which the chief said he showed to Reed before distribution, includes the Bible’s meaning of traditional marriage and the purpose of sex in a book he wrote for a men’s Bible study he leads. He wrote the book “Who Told You That You Were Naked: Overcoming the Stronghold of Condemnation” on his private time and published it in 2013.
However, when the radical gay lobby discovered his beliefs regarding traditional marriage, a city councilman complained to the mayor. Reed initially suspended Cochran for 30 days without pay and ordered him to attend “sensitivity training” and then fired him in January, stating, “I profoundly disagree with and am deeply disturbed by the sentiments expressed in the paperback . . . .”
As the case goes forward, several legal observers tell InsiderAdvantage that Reed will ultimately lose on the constitutional grounds cited the other day by the federal judge.
