Do you think the Oregon Board of Licensed Professional Counselors and Therapists would have fined a Muslim who told his client that he can’t affirm her lesbian “marriage” because Allah forbids it?
No, I don’t think so, either.
The bureaucrats had no problem fining Frank Canepa, a Christian counselor, for refusing to do so.
One of Canepa’s clients demanded that he affirm her “marriage.” Eventually, he told her he couldn’t affirm because of his faith. The board fined Canepa close to $90,000 and ordered him to take six hours of re-education and to pay for the hearing.
(See This Christian Counselor Refused to Affirm a Client’s ‘Marriage’ — Oregon Fined Him Almost $90,000)
Canepa asked an appeals court to set aside the board’s decision on First Amendment grounds. Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), Canepa’s legal counsel, announced that the board withdrew the disciplinary actions against him without explaining why. From ADF:
The opening brief ADF attorneys filed in April explained that the board’s punishment violated Canepa’s First Amendment rights, including the right to speak in counseling conversations. Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed this fundamental right in Chiles v. Salazar, holding that constitutional protections “extend to licensed professionals” like Canepa as “much as they do everyone else.”
Perhaps Oregon’s bureaucrats realized that the law and the U.S. Constitution were not on their side and decided to cut their losses. The cause of religious freedom prevails.
