Post by Daniel on May 23, 2017 16:54:39 GMT -5
Faith Shouldn’t Disqualify You from College: Defending Religious Liberties at the Fourth Circuit
By Carly F. Gammill
“It is axiomatic that ‘the government must abstain from regulating [or penalizing] speech when the motivating ideology or the opinion or perspective of the speaker is the rationale for the restriction,” and it is beyond dispute that the government may not “reserve special hostility for those who take their religion seriously [or] who think that their religion should affect the whole of their lives.” See Rosenberger v. Rector & Visitors of the Univ. of Va., 515 U.S. 819, 829 (1995)and Mitchell v. Helms, 530 U.S. 793, 827-28 (2000).These tenets underscored our argument before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals last week in our lawsuit on behalf of Dustin Buxton against the Radiation Therapy Program Director at the Community College of Baltimore County.
As you may recall, for over two and a half years we have been pursuing a lawsuit on behalf of Mr. Buxton based on the Program Director’s decision to penalize the admissions score of Mr. Buxton (and others) and ultimately deny them admission to the program because, in her words, they “brought up religion a great deal during the interview” but the radiation therapy field – in her opinion – “is not the place for religion.”
By way of refresher, the facts of the case include the following:
Dustin applied to CCBC’s Radiation Therapy Program for the 2013 and 2014 academic years. While he surpassed the standards of a competitive candidate both years, made the Dean’s List in 2013, and even raised his GPA for the 2014 application process, Dustin was nonetheless denied admission to each application. In fact, in the 2014 admission cycle, Dustin was not even granted an interview as he had been in 2013.
During that interview in 2013, Dustin was asked by the CCBC interview panel, “What do you base your morals on?” Dustin replied, “My faith.” His faith was not mentioned again, yet, in a written review of his interview, the Program Director, Adrienne Dougherty, stated that Dustin had lost points because,
“[Dustin] also brought up religion a great deal during the interview. Yes, this is a field that involves death and dying; but religion cannot be brought up in the clinic by therapist or students.”
Because the Program Director was apparently unaware of the foundational constitutional principles prohibiting religious discrimination by government entities, and the lower court failed to properly apply them, we were compelled to present the case to the appellate court, seeking reversal of the dangerous precedent established by the district court’s opinion.
more
aclj.org/religious-liberty/faith-shouldnt-disqualify-you-from-college-defending-religious-liberties-at-the-fourth-circuit
By Carly F. Gammill
“It is axiomatic that ‘the government must abstain from regulating [or penalizing] speech when the motivating ideology or the opinion or perspective of the speaker is the rationale for the restriction,” and it is beyond dispute that the government may not “reserve special hostility for those who take their religion seriously [or] who think that their religion should affect the whole of their lives.” See Rosenberger v. Rector & Visitors of the Univ. of Va., 515 U.S. 819, 829 (1995)and Mitchell v. Helms, 530 U.S. 793, 827-28 (2000).These tenets underscored our argument before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals last week in our lawsuit on behalf of Dustin Buxton against the Radiation Therapy Program Director at the Community College of Baltimore County.
As you may recall, for over two and a half years we have been pursuing a lawsuit on behalf of Mr. Buxton based on the Program Director’s decision to penalize the admissions score of Mr. Buxton (and others) and ultimately deny them admission to the program because, in her words, they “brought up religion a great deal during the interview” but the radiation therapy field – in her opinion – “is not the place for religion.”
By way of refresher, the facts of the case include the following:
Dustin applied to CCBC’s Radiation Therapy Program for the 2013 and 2014 academic years. While he surpassed the standards of a competitive candidate both years, made the Dean’s List in 2013, and even raised his GPA for the 2014 application process, Dustin was nonetheless denied admission to each application. In fact, in the 2014 admission cycle, Dustin was not even granted an interview as he had been in 2013.
During that interview in 2013, Dustin was asked by the CCBC interview panel, “What do you base your morals on?” Dustin replied, “My faith.” His faith was not mentioned again, yet, in a written review of his interview, the Program Director, Adrienne Dougherty, stated that Dustin had lost points because,
“[Dustin] also brought up religion a great deal during the interview. Yes, this is a field that involves death and dying; but religion cannot be brought up in the clinic by therapist or students.”
Because the Program Director was apparently unaware of the foundational constitutional principles prohibiting religious discrimination by government entities, and the lower court failed to properly apply them, we were compelled to present the case to the appellate court, seeking reversal of the dangerous precedent established by the district court’s opinion.
more
aclj.org/religious-liberty/faith-shouldnt-disqualify-you-from-college-defending-religious-liberties-at-the-fourth-circuit
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