News Release
For Immediate Release: 1.28.25
Contact: John Manning, media@firstliberty.org
Direct: 972-941-4453
Federal Appeals Court Grants New Hearing to Washington, DC First Responders Punished for Religious Beards
Federal Appeals court overturns lower court decision that required all first responders to be clean shaven regardless of religious beliefs.
Washington, D.C. — Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia unanimously overturned the lower court’s decision that refused to hold the District in contempt for violating a 2007 injunction that protected several first responders’ religious freedom to wear a beard while on duty. First Liberty Institute and the law firm Covington and Burling sought to hold D.C. Fire and Emergency Management Services (“FEMS”) accountable for violating the injunction. The court today vacated that ruling and remanded the case back to the lower court for a new hearing.
You can read the opinion, here.
“We applaud the appellate court for recognizing that violating an injunction in what the lower court called ‘a reasonably cautious way’ is not a recognized defense to civil contempt,” said Becky Dummermuth, Counsel to First Liberty Institute. “This is a victory for all Americans, affirming that courts do not have discretion to simply overlook when the government infringes on civil rights in defiance of a court order.”
Lucas Moench, Associate with Covington and Burling, said, “As the D.C. Circuit recognized, federal court orders are important instruments for protecting individual rights and cannot be disregarded. While additional work remains to be done, the Court’s opinion today is an important step toward vindicating the religious liberties our clients are guaranteed under federal law.”
In 2007, Calvert Potter, Steven Chasin, Hassan Umrani, and Jasper Sterling won a permanent injunction under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act against a D.C. FEMS policy requiring that they be clean shaven and ordering that they be returned to field duty. Then, in 2020, D.C. reinstituted the facial hair policy and moved them to administrative positions when they refused to shave their beards. After decades of faithful service to the city and many years of fighting for FEMS to recognize the religious rights of bearded fire fighters, D.C.’s violation of the injunction erased what the clients thought was a legacy they would leave for religious freedom. While D.C. claims that its actions were justified by COVID-19, it failed to ask the court to modify the injunction and did not consider alternatives for complying with it.
In today’s decision, the court concluded, “The district court applied the wrong legal framework for assessing civil contempt. The firefighters had a private right to enforcement of the original injunction, which protected their religious freedom and permanently forbade the Department from enforcing the 2005 facial hair policy against them. The district court had no general discretion to excuse civil contempt.”
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About First Liberty Institute
First Liberty Institute is a non-profit public interest law firm and the largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious freedom for all Americans.
To arrange an interview, contact John Manning at media@firstliberty.org or by calling 972-941-4453.
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