Appeals Court Protects the ACA Code of Ethics and GLBTQ Non-Discrimination

On Friday, December 15, the US Court of Appeals upheld the Southern District Court of Georgia's decision to deny a preliminary injunction against Augusta State University (ASU) for expelling Jennifer Keeton, a graduate counseling student who refused to participate in a remediation plan aimed at addressing her views on counseling GLBTQ clients.

As a graduate student, Jennifer Keeton openly stated her views to ASU professors and students that she would not be able to counsel GLTBQ clients because of her religious beliefs and that she supported reparative/conversion therapy. In order to address Keeton's deficits in becoming a multiculturally competent counselor, the ASU counseling program faculty created a remediation plan to help Ms. Keeton become comfortable counseling the GLBTQ population. Rather than comply with the remediation plan, Keeton opted to file a complaint against ASU in federal court, as well as a motion to preliminarily enjoin ASU from enforcing her expulsion.

The ACA Code of Ethics featured heavily in the appellate decision. In rebutting Keeton's claim that ASU effectively gave her the ultimatum of "adhering to the Bible or to the ACA Code of Ethics, "Judge Barkett of the Eleventh Circuit Court explained that the code regulates certain types of speech in the interest of requiring counselors to "separate their personal beliefs from their work".

ACA welcomes the decision of the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. It is available online by clicking here.