Lumpkin

In 1993, the City of San Francisco removed Reverend Eugene Lumpkin from his position as a member of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission because of public statements he made condemning homosexuality. The statements cited by the City in removing Reverend Lumpkin included the following:

In removing Reverend Lumpkin from office, then-Mayor Frank Jordan stated:

CR 29, exh. H.

Mayor Jordan’s action was backed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which resolved that:

CR 23, Exh. C at 2.

Reverend Lumpkin sued the Mayor and the City, claiming that his removal from the Human Rights Commission violated his rights under the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, 42 U.S.C. § 2000bb-l. The district court granted defendants summary judgment on the ground that the City’s action was fully justified because Reverend Lumpkin’s public statements were inconsistent with his “broad responsibilities for formulating, implementing and explaining [the] policy” of the Human Rights Commission, Order at 9, 14, and because his dismissal did not constitute governmental establishment of religion. Order at 17.

We agree with the district court that neither the First…