Liberty Counsel filed a lawsuit against the City of Baton Rouge on behalf of bi-vocational Pastor Luke Ash who was unlawfully fired from his job as a library technician for refusing to lie and use false gender pronouns. The complaint states that the East Baton Rouge Parish Library specifically terminated Pastor Ash because his religious beliefs prevented him from using “preferred” male pronouns to refer to a female coworker. Pastor Ash contends that the library’s “Inclusivity Policy” requiring such usage violated his First Amendment religious rights and that the library failed to engage in the Title VII religious accommodation process before firing him.

Liberty Counsel is seeking a permanent injunction that declares the library’s “Inclusivity Policy” is unconstitutional for violating his constitutional rights of free speech, religious exercise, equal protection, the Louisiana Preservation of Religious Freedom Act, as well as his religious protections under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The lawsuit also requests that the court order the library to reinstate Pastor Ash to his prior position, restore his benefits, and award backpay, damages, and attorney’s fees and costs.

In addition to the city and the East Baton Rouge Parish Library, the lawsuit also names the Metropolitan Council and the Library Board of Control for the City of East Baton Rouge.

In July 2025, a coworker asked Pastor Ash whether he would use male pronouns for a biological female trainee. As a Christian minister, Pastor Ash holds religious beliefs that biological sex is immutable and that being complicit in a known lie would compromise those convictions, and so he told the coworker that he could not do so. Shortly thereafter, his supervisors reiterated that the “Inclusivity Policy” states “all employees have the right to be addressed by their chosen name and pronouns.” When questioned, Pastor Ash told his supervisors that he was not going to lie and needed an accommodation. 

On July 10, 2025, his supervisors informed him that he was being terminated because his religious beliefs were incompatible with employment at the library.

“Defendants terminated [Pastor Ash] solely on the basis of his articulated religious beliefs and need for an accommodation. It was thus the sole motivating factor in their termination of his employment,” reads the lawsuit. “Defendants neither engaged nor requested to engage in any interactive accommodation process.”

The complaint concludes that Pastor Ash’s firing violated the First Amendment because it was retaliation for his protected speech, an attempted compulsion to speak the government’s preferred viewpoint, and viewpoint discrimination for “disqualifying” a person’s religious beliefs from protection and employment. 

Recently, Louisiana legislators enacted Act 579, a new law prohibiting state employers from forcing employees to lie and use false “gender identity” pronouns to refer to other employees. The law bans workplace policies in every state municipality and parish that mandate pronoun usage tied to “gender identity,” and protects employees from any punishment for refusing to address people by false pronouns according to their beliefs.

Act 579 reads, “An employee shall not be required, as a condition of employment, to address another employee or any other person by a name other than the person’s legal name, or a derivative thereof, or to use pronouns, salutations, titles, or honorifics inconsistent with the other employee’s or person’s sex.” 

The law derives its intent from the First Amendment which “protects not only the right to speak freely but also the right to refrain from speaking,” the Act reads. “Employment practices that compel speech on matters of political, ideological, or religious significance threaten individual liberties and freedom of conscience. The Supreme Court of the United States has affirmed that the First Amendment prohibits the government from compelling speech by requiring an individual to communicate messages contrary to sincerely held religious beliefs.”

The law goes into effect August 1, 2026, but will not be retroactively applied to Pastor Ash. 

However, the bill’s necessity and creation are due in large part to his unlawful firing by the East Baton Rouge Parish Library. Liberty Counsel, which routinely helps state legislators on cutting-edge legislation, worked with Louisiana officials and contributed to the bill’s final language.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “The East Baton Rouge Parish Library violated the U.S. Constitution and Louisiana law for requiring Pastor Ash to refer to a female employee by masculine pronouns and then firing him for upholding his religious beliefs. The library also violated Title VII for not even considering a religious accommodation for Pastor Ash. There is no compelling interest in requiring Pastor Ash to lie or affirm false sex-based pronouns. Employers cannot force people to choose between their faith and their livelihood.”

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