EXCLUSIVE: Police Officer Resigns After Being Put on Leave for Facebook Post on Traditional Marriage

Daily Signal.com ^ | 1/25/2023 | Virginia Allen

[Beave Meister]

A Georgia police officer has resigned after he was told by superiors that he could not share his personal religious views on social media.

“If someone somewhere considers an opinion I have—that isn’t a direct quotation from Scripture—to be offensive, then that would be a fireable offense,” Jacob Kersey, the former officer, told The Daily Signal.

Kersey, 19, who began working last May at the Port Wentworth Police Department, in a jurisdiction just outside Savannah, says “everything was going well” until the start of the new year.

On Jan. 2, Kersey posted a 20-word message about his view of marriage on Facebook.

“God designed marriage. Marriage refers to Christ and the church,” he wrote, paraphrasing the Apostle Paul’s teaching in the Book of Ephesians. “That’s why there is no such thing as homosexual marriage.”

[fwdude]

Ironically, this directly contradicts the Supreme Court opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges, which reaffirmed the First Amendment right of those who disagreed with “same-sex marriage” to have the robust support of government to dissented publicly.

[fwdude]

He should not have resigned, he should’ve stayed and fought. This is a cut-and-dry First Amendment issue, and there is no way he would ultimately lose in court.