Suspended Lawyer Sues Over AA’s God-Talk

An attorney with a drug problem, citing Alcoholics Anonymous insistence on the acknowledgment of a higher power, has sued the Ohio Lawyers Assistance Program, after being required to enter a drug treatment program and an AA group. Defendants in the pro se lawsuit, in addition to OLAP and its associate director, include a Cleveland treatment center, a county probation department, a county health board, and the Ohio judge who sentenced the plaintiff to 30 days in an in-patient program. His sentence, which also included two years probation, followed conviction on drug charges involving theft and possession of hydrocodone pills. The charges included evidence-tampering, based on allegations that he swallowed four of five stolen pills after being confronted by security personnel at the clinic where he was then working as a pharmacist. Citing the principles of the AA 12-step program, the suspended attorney maintains that compelling “any  person to attend de facto religious services as a part of mandatory substance abuse treatment program is a predictable and systemic violation of constitutional law,” and that defendants are facilitating an “impermissible establishment of religion or endorsement of religion.”