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Lawsuit Charges Indiana Lawyer Assistance Program With Religious Bias

By Howard M. Friedman

The ArchAngel Institute is a Christian pro-life organization. Its Executive Director, Bryan Brown, a member of the Kansas bar since 1996, was denied admission to the Indiana bar in 2008 after psychological and psychiatric examinations ordered by the Indiana Board of Law Examiners and the Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program (JLAP). Brown this week filed suit in federal district court in Indiana challenging the operations of JLAP. The examinations they ordered resulted in findings that Brown suffered from a sub-clinical bipolar disorder, or from a personality disorder. The complaint (full text) in Brown v. Bowman, (ND IN, filed 12/8/2009) was filed pro se and in 265 paragraphs chronicles his view that he was the victim of collusion, bias and invidious discrimination. He argues that JLAP and its experts targeted his pro-life beliefs that grow out of his traditional Christian worldview and his constitutional, conservative political perspective. The complaint asserts 26 federal and state constitutional and statutory violations.

Describing the underlyinig facts on the ArchAngel Institute's website, Brown commented that he"was remanded from the Indiana Board of Law Examiners into the Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program on January 25, 2008 (the Feast day of St. Paul) and subjected to that agency?s machinations until they remanded him back to the Indiana Board of Law Examiners on January 22, 2009 (the anniversary of Roe v. Wade)." A column in yesterday's Ft. Wayne (IN) News-Sentinel examines the case.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on December 11, 2009 (boomark / email).