A federal judge in Georgia has ruled against Augusta State University student Jennifer Keeton's request for a preliminary injunction that would have prohibited the school's graduate Counseling Education program from expelling her. In a controversial and high-profile dispute , Keeton is challenging a remediation plan assigned to her by faculty to address concerns that she intended to promote her personal moral views when counseling gays and lesbians, in violation of professional ethical standards. She argues that such requirements violate her First Amendment religious freedom rights, among others.
Denying her motion, Judge Randal Hall emphasized (pdf) that achieving professional standards are a reasonable educational concern, and that Keeton's personal religious beliefs were not at stake; instead, what the faculty sought to adjust was her belief in the propriety of imposing her religious views in a counseling setting.
The Supreme Court and the eleventh circuit have held that matters of educational policy should be left to educators and it is not the proper role of federal judges to second guess an educator's professional judgment.
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The record indicates that the belief the faculty is referring to, rather than Plaintiff's personal views on sexual morality, is the view that Plaintiff's moral view is preferable to a homosexual counselee's moral view, and that therefore Plaintiff ought to tell the counselee as much in a counseling setting.
