Atheists & Agnostics

The problem appears to be this was the counselor SELECTED by the mother, who later found out this counselor used religion. As I have said before, the proper thing to do was to ask the Court to name a different counselor, one the Mother was willing to pay for, but the Mother did not do that, instead she disobeyed the court order that she had agreed to.

The Court ordered her to complete the sessions, which she did and received her kids back at that point. She could have opt to go to some another counselor, but she decided otherwise. Thus from the Court's point of view, the Courts did NOT ORDER the Mother to do anything she had NOT agreed to do. The Courts do NOT decide which counselors people go to, the courts leave that up to the parties themselves to select (Through the Courts are selective as to who can be a counselor, but it is a minimum requirement rule, i.e. certain subjects must be covered, certain number of hours etc).

I suspect the Mother's attorney suggested this counselor, for she is the low cost provider of such services. That is the practice in most of the US, the Client's attorney suggest someone (or a list of such counsellors) and the client agrees to name that person (or someone on the list provided to them) as their counselor. The court then enters an Order to reflect that selection.

Thus, except by accepting the name of the counselor from the Mother's Attorney, the courts had nothing to do with selecting the counselor. All the court did was entered an order for counseling and when the Mother failed to complied took her kids away till she did what she agreed to do. The Mother could have opt for another counselor but she did not take up that option, instead finished what she had agreed to do.

As to the ACLU statement, that is NOT the law, for the simple reason the Courts have long ruled that Congress can force people into the Military (the Draft) "where they are forced to accept training or therapy that violates their own religious beliefs and morals" and that does not violate the First Amendment (The Religious exemption from the Draft is a product of Statute only NOT the First Amendment).

The Actual constitutional rule is does this further a specific religion OR suppress a specific religion? (Atheism is classified as a religion for both purposes). Giving people the right to select their own counselors does neither, thus no violation of the First Amendment.