Christian City Firefighter’s Beard-Bias Case Revived for Trial

Atlantic City, N.J., saw its victory against a Christian firefighter suing over its no-beards policy partly undone Friday, with the Third Circuit reviving two of his claims for trial.

Summary judgment was wrongly granted on Alexander Smith’s free-exercise-of-religion claims, a three-judge panel said in a divided ruling. Smith also raised triable issues that he was denied a religious accommodation for his belief that men should wear beards in emulation of “Jesus Christ and the Biblical prophets,” in violation of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the panel agreed unanimously.

Judge David J. Porter wrote most of the ...