Christian Counseling Student's Discrimination Claim Survives Motions To Dismiss

In Ward v. Members of the Board of Control of Eastern Michigan University, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 27861 (ED MI, March 24, 2010), a Michigan federal district court denied defendants' motions to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a graduate student in Eastern Michigan University's counseling program who was dismissed from the program after, in a Practicum, she refused to counsel a client on a homosexual relationship. The lawsuit alleges that plaintiff's expression and free exercise rights, as well as her due process and equal protection rights, were infringed because of disagreement with her Christian beliefs regarding homosexuality.