The city of Atlanta will pay former fire chief Kelvin Cochran $1.2 million in the wake of a December 2017 court ruling that deemed unconstitutional the city policies that led to his firing by then-Mayor Kasim Reed. The court determined that Atlanta’s rules restricting non-work speech, like the book for Christian men that Cochran authored, were too broad and allowed city officials to unconstitutionally discriminate against views with which they disagreed.
That’s why this week the City Council finally voted to grant the highly-decorated chief the whopping damages fee after negotiating with his Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) attorneys.
“The government can’t force its employees to get its permission before they engage in free speech. It also can’t fire them for exercising that First Amendment freedom, causing them to lose both their freedom and their livelihoods,” said ADF Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot, who argued before the court on behalf of Cochran in 2017. “We are very pleased that the city is compensating Chief Cochran as it should, and we hope this will serve as a deterrent to any government that would trample upon the constitutionally protected freedoms of its public servants.”
The devout traditional Christian was fired by Reed, who accused Cochran of forcing his beliefs that were in his book on other employees. (By the way, a city investigation which Reed ignored found that the chief discriminated against no one.)
An ADF media release also notes: “In addition, as the court found, the city can’t leave such decisions to the whims of government officials. This ruling benefits not only Chief Cochran, but also other employees who want to write books or speak about matters unrelated to work. Atlanta can no longer force them to get permission or deny them permission just because certain officials disagree with the views expressed.”
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