Advocates for Faith & Freedom asks the nation’s highest court to protect religious expression and prevent government officials from imposing ideological tests on public service.
ADVOCATES FOR FAITH & FREEDOM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2026
CONTACT: NICOLE VELASCO AT
MEDIA@FAITH-FREEDOM.COM
Washington, D.C. — Advocates for Faith & Freedom has filed a petition with the United States Supreme Court on behalf of Pastor Dennis Hodges, a longtime public servant who was denied reappointment to a San Diego advisory board because of his Christian beliefs about human sexuality.
The case raises a fundamental constitutional question: Can government officials exclude Americans from public service simply because they disagree with their religious convictions?
Hodges dedicated decades to public service as a California Department of Corrections captain and special agent, San Diego Police Department chaplain, and volunteer member of the City’s Citizens Advisory Board on Police/Community Relations.
In 2021, while serving on the separate San Diego County Human Relations Commission, Hodges abstained from voting on an initiative to amplify transgender voices, citing his belief that God created human beings male and female. He also affirmed that all people deserve love and respect.
Nearly two years later, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria vetoed Hodges’s reappointment to the City’s police advisory board because of his sincerely held Christian beliefs. Hodges had not voted against the initiative. Rather, he chose to abstain out of respect for his religious convictions while remaining fair and impartial. Despite his measured approach, the Mayor used his expression of faith as grounds to deny him continued public service.
Advocates challenged the Mayor’s actions as violations of Hodges’s First Amendment rights. However, the district court dismissed the case, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision in February 2026.
Now, Advocates is asking the Supreme Court to intervene, warning that the ruling opens the door for government officials to impose religious and ideological tests on Americans seeking to serve their communities.
Significantly, Judge J. Campbell Barker, concurring in the Ninth Circuit’s decision, questioned whether the court’s approach was consistent with Supreme Court precedent and identified a conflict among federal appellate courts.
“Pastor Hodges was punished for expressing Christian beliefs that had nothing to do with his ability to serve,” said Joel Oster, Vice President and Chief of Trial Litigation for Advocates for Faith & Freedom. “If this ruling stands, government officials could effectively silence religious viewpoints by declaring them politically unacceptable. The First Amendment does not exist only for those whose beliefs align with the government.”
“This case is about far more than one pastor or one city,” said Robert Tyler, President and Chief Counsel of Advocates for Faith & Freedom. “It is about whether the government can demand ideological conformity as the price of public service.” The petition asks the Supreme Court to reaffirm that public service cannot come at the expense of religious freedom and free speech.