A former Stockton fire chief who said religious discrimination resulted in his firing has appealed his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, his legal team reported.
The court is being asked to reverse a decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that ruled in favor of the city of Stockton in terminating Ronald Hittle. Among the issues was whether Hittle acted improperly in attending a leadership event at a church.
Hittle was Stockton’s fire chief from 2005 to 2011.
“It is a tragic day for religious liberty in America when someone can be fired because they attend an event that includes religious perspectives,” Stephanie Taub, senior counsel at First Liberty Institute, said in a statement Tuesday. “The city showed extreme anti-religious bias and broke the law when it fired Chief Hittle.”
The institute, a Texas-based legal nonprofit devoted to pursuing religious discrimination cases, was joined by law firm Baker Botts and the Church State Council in announcing the appeal.
In its ruling, the appeals court found that Hittle was required to demonstrate that his religion was a motivating factor in order to prove the discrimination at the heart of his case. But the panel of appellate judges ruled that Hittle had failed to present sufficient direct evidence that his ouster was indeed motivated by discrimination.
The case began in 2010 when the city received an anonymous letter calling Hittle a “corrupt, racist, lying, religious fanatic who should not be allowed to continue as the Fire Chief of Stockton,” the judges said in summarizing the case.
Later that year, a deputy city manager asked Hittle to attend a leadership training program for fire chief or senior public officials. But when Hittle was given four tickets to a church-based leadership program in Livermore, he attended with three other fire department employees in a city-owned vehicle, the appeals court said in its summary.
In the petition to the Supreme Court, Hittle’s lawyers say that he was unable to find a suitable leadership program in California that wouldn’t be too expensive for his cash-strapped department and that he took the church offer instead. The Global Leadership Summit had featured speakers in the past such as former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.
Another anonymous letter came to the city after the conference, alleging the chief had attended a religious event while he was on the job. All four firefighters paid their own way to the program.
In light of that and other allegations, the city brought in an outside investigator who produced a 250-page report substantiating major shortcomings in Hittle’s tenure, the appeals court said.
The report accused Hittle not only of attending the religious-based event, but also exercising bad judgment in leading the department, failing to properly report his time off and showing potential favoritism to other city employees based on a financial conflict of interest that had not been disclosed to the city.
Hittle’s lawyer said attending the event deemed to be religious was at the crux of the city report. His legal team also argues the chief was a solid leader of the fire department and is being singled out because of his faith.
“Stockton officials were completely intolerant of Chief Hittle’s religious beliefs,” Aaron Streett of Baker Botts said in a statement. “Federal law protects the freedom of every American to live without fear of being fired simply because of their beliefs.”
Alan Reinach of the Church State Council said the appeals court failed to focus on the “abundant evidence” that Hittle handed over to show he was a victim of religious discrimination.”