Americans United: Iowa SupremeCourtRulingOnMarriageUpholdsReligious Liberty, Says Americans United

[Volokh, Eugene]

            Do we have much of a basis for this prediction about the
ADF?  It's true that ADF has successfully sued the university for views
that the university itself has expressed, on the grounds that the
university was endorsing a particular view about religion.  But if a
university genuinely has a policy in which atheist counselors can refer
religious students to counselors who may be more sympathetic with the
religious, and religious counselors can refer atheist students to
counselors who may be more sympathetic with the atheist, and
anti-homosexuality counselors can refer homosexual students to
counselors who may be more sympathetic, why should we predict that the
ADF would sue?

 

            Eugene

Quoting Steve Sanders <stevesan at umich.edu>:

> 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
>
>

 

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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