Gov. Abbott wades into dispute over faith-based legal education [View all]
Gov. Greg Abbott wants the organization that oversees Texas lawyers to reverse its disapproval of a Catholic faith-based continuing education course, calling the decision shallow and potentially discriminatory.
The {State Bar of Texas} Committees position that legal ethics and religious or moral responsibilities should be or even can be completely divorced from each other is entirely without basis, Abbotts general counsel Jimmy Blacklock wrote in a Dec. 22 letter to the State Bar of Texas.
Abbott, who is a devout Catholic, waded into the dispute after Catholic lawyers and educators connected with St. Marys University School of Law in San Antonio sought his intervention. The school and the State Bar are in a stand-off over whether lawyers should be given continuing legal education credit for a faith-based educational course. The State Bar contends that its rules only allow credit for courses specifically related to attorney duties, excluding issues related to religious or moral responsibilities.
It has also denied approval for other faith-based programs proposed in Dallas. But St. Marys, which is seeking approval for a course titled Christian Ethical Perspectives: Faith and and Law Today, argues that morality and ethics cannot be separated from legal responsibilities. The attorneys and educators affiliated with St. Marys argue that the State Bar decision violates their First Amendment rights.
Read more: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2015/12/gov-abbott-wades-into-dispute-over-faith-based-legal-education.html/