Federal Judge Blocks Significant Parts Of Arizona Immigration Bill, Federal Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against Eastern Michigan University Brought By Anti-Gay Student, Augusta State University Release Statement On Lawsuit Brought By Avowed Anti-Gay Student

United States District Judge Susan Bolton Wednesday stopped the implementation of parts of Arizona’s new SB1070 immigration law that was scheduled to take effect midnight Thursday. Police are not randomly allowed to stop individuals based on a determination that they are in America illegally, and police are not allowed to charge anyone for a proposed new crime of failing to possess proper immigration documents. Bolton ruled that the state of Arizona attempted an unconstitutional effort to regulate immigration. Arizona is expected to appeal the decision to the United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco immediately.

Tuesday, Federal Judge George Steeh rejected a lawsuit filed by the Alliance Defense Fund on behalf of Julea Ward, a master’s student studying in the counselling program at Eastern Michigan University, expelled because she refused to offer counsel to gay clients in an affirming manner, as required by the university program and counselling associations. Steeh found that the university was in fact enforcing a legitimate curricular requirement that all counselling students learn to work with all clients in a way that does impose a personal judgement on the client’s values or orientation, and that Eastern Michigan did not violate on the constitutional guarantees of free speech and the right to religious freedom. Ward, who refers to herself as an “orthodox Christian,” began the master’s program in 2006, writing in papers that she believed homosexuality to be “morally wrong.” In 2009, as a part of the program, Ward was about to have an appointment with a client whose file indicated a past discussion of a gay relationship, but requested that the client be referred to another counsellor rather that have to engage in any counselling that could “affirm the client’s homosexual behaviour.” The supervising counsellor subsequently cancelled that appointment – which was to begin in hours – and Ward, after disciplinary hearings, was consequently expelled.

The Alliance Defense Fund last week filed a similar lawsuit against Augusta State University in Georgia, on behalf of Jennifer Keeton, who alleges that the University asked her to compromise strongly held religious convictions in order to graduate from the counselling program. Tuesday, the university released a statement that read in part “Augusta State University ... does not discriminate against any individuals on the basis of their personal, social, political, or religious beliefs or views,” adding that the “counselling profession requires its practitioners to recognize that people set and adhere to their own moral compass. The professional counsellor’s job is help clients clarify their current feelings and behaviours and to help them reach the goals that they have determined for themselves, not to dictate what those goals should be, what morals they should possess, or what values they should adopt.”