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Please Pray: Fire Chief Ron Hittle & First Liberty are Going to Court on Monday 3/27

by Mia Gradick • 4 min read

First Liberty will be in a federal appeals court on Monday March 27 arguing our Faith Under Fire case.

In a special First Liberty Live! episode, we’ll preview what you can expect to see in the courtroom and then livestream the argument. Make sure to visit https://firstlibertylive.com/ so you can listen in.

Fire Chief Ron Hittle was wrongfully fired because he went to a conference at a church that featured both secular and religious speakers talking about leadership. After 24 years of service, the city of Stockton, California opened a months-long investigation, belittled his beliefs, mistreated him and eventually fired him. One of his superiors pressured him to accept a demotion. He also threatened Ron, saying, “I’ll drag your name through the mud” and conduct an investigation that “will be embarrassing for you and your family.” Another supervisor disparagingly referred to Ron and other Christians in the office as a “Christian Coalition” and “church clique. Ironically, he went to the conference because his supervisors had encouraged him to attend leadership training.

In this time of extreme cancel culture, employers continue to defy the law by punishing, demoting, harassing and firing workers like Chief Hittle over their religious beliefs. Winning this case could impact countless employees facing religious discrimination. The outcome could protect you, your children and grandchildren, and every person of faith in the workplace.

Now that we’re only a few short days away from oral argument at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, we’re asking you to please continue praying for Chief Hittle.

This has been a long and arduous legal battle for our client. Chief Hittle has been fighting in court for more than 10 years. Getting to this critical point hasn’t been easy—and now it’s up to us to give him the spiritual support he needs as his case is being argued. This argument is a huge opportunity to finally restore Chief Hittle’s rights and freedoms under the law.

Click here, if you would like to send a personal note of encouragement to Chief Hittle. This will let him know he’s not alone in his fight.

If you haven’t yet heard Fire Chief Hittle’s story, you can watch him tell it first-hand in this First Liberty Live interview:

Additionally, we humbly ask you to please pray for:

• First Liberty’s legal team and everyone in our organization who’s devoting extra time to prepare for the argument. Especially, we ask you to please pray for Attorney Elisabeth Butler, who will be arguing before the Ninth Circuit, and President, CEO and Chief Counsel Kelly Shackelford, along with the multiple members of the team who will be there on the day of argument.
• The judges who will hear this case. Please pray for their wisdom and discernment, so they will have open minds as they listen to our arguments. No matter their philosophy of the law and the Constitution, we’re praying they all agree that Americans should not be forced to choose between their faith and their livelihood.

As we prepare for this important court date, we want to thank you for standing strong alongside Chief Hittle and First Liberty. Your prayers, encouragement and support have been critical in this battle. We would not have been able to get this far without you.

With oral argument just a few days away, this is a special opportunity for you to impact the future of religious liberty in America. In this final stretch, you can still make a huge difference and help us secure a victory for Chief Hittle and millions of people of faith in the workplace. Please give to First Liberty today.