Americans United: Iowa Supreme CourtRulingOnMarriageUpholdsReligious Liberty, Says Americans United

[Steve Sanders]

Let's say a student comes to a counselor in the same university clinical
program and wants help understanding how religion might him better deal with
his personal problems.  The counselor is an atheist and believes as a matter
of conscience that religion does not play a valid role in helping people
deal with their problems.  The counselor refers the student to another
counselor.  
 
I predict that the Alliance Defense Fund would sue the school claiming that
its counseling program was attempting to impose a certain (derogatory) view
about religion, much as ADF recently (successfully) sued a university based
on commentary about religious views toward homosexuality that appeared in
student-created literature in the school's Safe Zone program.
 
Do Rick and Doug agree that such a suit would be silly and that the
common-sense, live-and-let-live ethic also ought to prevail in such a case?
 
_____________________________________ 


Steve Sanders 


 <http://www.mayerbrown.com/lawyers/profile.asp?hubbardid=S597744167>
Attorney, Supreme Court and appellate litigation practice group, Mayer Brown
LLP, Chicago

Co-editor,  <http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/lgbtlaw/> Sexual Orientation
and the Law Blog

Adjunct faculty, University of Michigan Law School (Winter term 2010)

Email:  <mailto:stevesan at umich.edu> stevesan at umich.edu

Personal home page:  <http://www.stevesanders.net/> www.stevesanders.net

 

 
 
 


  _____  

From: religionlaw-bounces at lists.ucla.edu
[mailto:religionlaw-bounces at lists.ucla.edu] On Behalf Of Douglas Laycock
Sent: Tuesday, April 07, 2009 9:24 AM
To: religionlaw at lists.ucla.edu
Subject: RE: Americans United: Iowa Supreme
CourtRulingOnMarriageUpholdsReligious Liberty, Says Americans United



Clarification:  This was a student at Eastern Michigan University.  Michigan
State University had a rough night last night against Carolina, but it had
nothing to do with discriminating against Ms. Ward.

This issue was litigated a few years ago in the Social Work Department at
Southwest Missouri State, and if I recall, ended in a big settlement for the
student.  These cases are clear examples where live and let live yields an
obvious solution -- refer the gay counselee to a counselor who can actually
help him and will have no conflict with conscience -- and ideologues on one
side or the other reject live and let live and seek either coercively
imposed thought reform or explusion from the program.

Quoting Rick Duncan <nebraskalawprof at yahoo.com>:

> Here is another example--from the Religion Clause blog-- of the 
> inevitable conflict between gay rights and religious liberty:
>
>
>
>
> Former Student Challenges University's Requirements for Counseling
Practicum
>
>
>
> Last week, a former graduate student at Michigan State University
> filed suit in a Michigan federal district court alleging that she was
> unconstitutionally dismissed from the University's graduate Counselling
> Program solely because her religious beliefs and expression regarding
> homosexual behavior contradicted those of the University's counseling
> department. Ward believes that homosexual behavior is immoral and can
> be changed. In Ward v. Members of the Board of Control of Eastern 
> Michigan University, (ED MI, filed 4/2/2009) (full text of complaint),
> Julea Ward alleged that disciplinary proceedings were brought against
> her because in her Counseling Practicum course she referred a
> homosexual client to another counsellor rather than affirm and validate
> the client's homosexual conduct. She was told that to remain in the
> program she would need to undergo a "remediation" program to "see the
> error of her ways" and change her "belief system" on homosexual
> conduct. Alliance Defense Fund issued a release
> announcing the filing of the lawsuit. The University today refused
> specific comment, but said that it is a "diverse campus with a strong
> commitment not to discriminate on the basis of gender, race,
> disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or
> expression." (Ann Arbor News.)
>
>
> Another is what public schools teach impressionable children about 
> marriage and human sexuality in states where the law affirms the 
> goodness of homosexual marriages and relationships. The law is a 
> seminar and the public school curricula, which is taught to all our 
> children, will reflect what the law teaches about marriage and sexual 
> orientation.
>
> Again, school vouchers would allow parents to opt out of the "common" 
> curriculum and avoid the inevitable conflict that arises when one 
> side of the culture war gets to teach the other side's children what 
> is the true, the good and the beautiful.
>
> Cheers, Rick Duncan
>
>
>
>


 

Douglas Laycock
Yale Kamisar Collegiate Professor of Law
University of Michigan Law School
625 S. State St.
Ann Arbor, MI  48109-1215
  734-647-9713

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