Fox v. City of Austin
Description: Dr. Andrew Fox created the chaplaincy program at the Austin Fire Department and served as the lead chaplain in a volunteer capacity for eight years, earning the trust and respect of the firefighters. But after Dr. Fox shared his religious views on his personal blog, city officials demanded he recant and apologize for the harm his blog post allegedly caused. He explained that his intent was to foster discussion, not cause offense, and apologized if anyone was offended. But his apology wasn’t good enough for Austin city officials who demanded total compliance with their political ideology, and they forced Dr. Fox to turn in his uniform.
Austin fire chaplain ousted over blog post about women's sports asks court to protect his speech
WHO: Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys
WHAT: Available for media interviews following oral arguments in Fox v. City of Austin
WHEN: Immediately following hearing, which begins at 1:30 p.m. CDT, Wednesday, Aug. 14
WHERE: U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division, Austin Courtroom 2, 501 W. 5th St. Suite 1100, Austin. To schedule an interview, contact ADF Media Relations Specialist Hattie Troutman at (771) 200-7630.
AUSTIN, Texas – Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing a former volunteer chaplain of the Austin Fire Department will be available for media interviews following oral arguments Wednesday at the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division, in Fox v. City of Austin. Dr. Andrew Fox is asking the court to protect his free speech and religious freedom after city officials fired him after he shared his religious views on his personal blog.
Fox is an ordained minister who helped start Austin’s fire chaplaincy program and served as the city’s lead chaplain—a volunteer position—for eight years. After sharing on his personal blog the fact that men and women are biologically different and his view that men should not compete on women’s sports teams, city officials demanded that Fox apologize and then fired him. ADF attorneys filed the lawsuit in 2022 asking the court to uphold Fox’s First Amendment rights.
“Everyone should be able to speak freely without fear of punishment just for expressing a view the government disagrees with,” said ADF Legal Counsel Rachel Rouleau. “Dr. Fox served Austin’s fire department—without pay—for eight years with excellence and integrity, serving everyone, including those in the LGBT community. No matter your personal view on whether men should be allowed to compete on women’s sports teams, it should deeply concern every American that the government can fire someone who expresses that widely held view. We are urging the court to hold Austin officials responsible for this undue violation of his constitutional right to free speech.”
ADF attorneys filed a brief in the case explaining that fire department officials highly respected Fox for walking side by side with first responders and their families and for providing a listening ear and source of prayer as they encountered deaths, suicides, and other tragedies. Most fire department employees were unaware of Fox’s personal blog, but after one employee contacted the fire department’s LGBT liaison about Fox’s blog post about men competing in women’s sports, Fox was eventually fired in violation of his First Amendment rights.
Fox served in a voluntary capacity as lead chaplain of the Austin Fire Department for eight years until his dismissal in December 2021.
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.
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ABOUT Rachel Rouleau
Rachel Rouleau serves as legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, where she is a member of the Center for Conscience Initiatives. Rouleau joined the Conscience Team in 2020, where she focuses on protecting the conscience rights of individuals being unjustly forced to compromise their beliefs under threat of heavy fines and punishment. Prior to that, she was a First Year Lawyer Fellow in ADF’s new fellowship program. Rouleau earned her J.D. from William and Mary Law School in 2019. She obtained her B.A. in political science from the University of Florida in 2015. She is a member of the Massachusetts bar.
ABOUT Hal Frampton
Hal Frampton serves as senior counsel in the Center for Conscience Initiatives at Alliance Defending Freedom. In this role, he regularly defends the constitutional and statutory rights of creative professionals, medical professionals, and others to live out their faith in the workplace without government coercion, harassment, or discrimination. Before joining ADF in 2021, Frampton was a partner at an AmLaw 100 firm where he focused his practice on litigating complex employment, commercial, and class-action disputes. Frampton earned his J.D. from Yale Law School in 2006. After law school, he clerked for judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. He earned his B.A. from Furman University in 2002 and his M.A. from Maynooth University in 2003. Frampton is a member of the state bars of South Carolina and Nebraska.