法律英语：17 Does Mandatory AA Violate。。。

by Adam Freedman

Today’s topic: Can the state force you to attend Alcoholics 2 Anonymous 3, or similar programs with religious overtones?

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Back to the issue:

Does AA Violate the Separation of Church and State?

I just got a fascinating question from Alicia, who writes in to say that in her home state of Wisconsin, substance abusers are sometimes required to attend Alcoholics Anonymous by their parole or probation 5 officer. As Alicia observes, AA requires participants to accept a power greater than themselves--in short, God. She asks: “Is it a reasonable separation of church and state to send clients to meetings which discuss a higher power?”

Great question!  I have to confess, my first reaction was “Oh, come on!  AA isn’t a religion!”  But it turns out that Alicia has put her finger on a serious constitutional issue.

Where is Separation of Church and State in the Constitution?

The relevant part of the First Amendment 6 states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”  Those words are known as the “Establishment Clause.” One of the goals of the Founding Fathers was to prevent the federal government from creating an “established church,” as Britain had (and, indeed, still has). Clearly, the Establishment Clause prevents the government from doing that, but over the years, the Supreme 7 Court has held that the clause prevents a wide variety of government actions that support, or might even appear to endorse 8, religion.

As I discuss in an earlier article, courts have developed a number of tests to determine whether the government is coercing 9 a religious belief or is somehow getting “excessively entangled” in religion--as is sometimes the case with those Christmas/Hannukah displays that go up around City Hall in December. Judges have even held that government cannot appear to endorse religion in general, as distinct from atheism 10.

Does Mandatory 11 AA Violate the Constitution?

So where does that leave AA, whose members have committed to “turn our will and lives over to the care of God, as we understood Him,” to quote Step #3 of their 12-step program?

Although the Supreme Court has yet to rule on this question, at least three federal courts of appeal have held that requiring a person to attend Alcoholic 1 Anonymous or Narcotics 12 Anonymous (NA) violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. 

Do Buddhists 14 and Atheists Have to Attend AA?

In 2007 the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a parole officer’s demand that a convicted drug offender 16 attend Narcotics Anonymous violated the First Amendment rights of the offender, who claimed to be a Buddhist 13. Not only that, but the aggrieved 17 offender was free to sue the parole officer for damages, even though state officials are often immune from such suits.

The upshot is that parole and probation officers must be very careful when ordering treatment for addicts--they might find themselves on the wrong end of a lawsuit 18.  Having said that, the damages in such a suit may not be very large. In one case, a New York man who claimed to be an atheist 15 sued county probation officials for requiring him to attend AA after his third alcohol-related driving offense 19. A federal district judge agreed that the officials had violated the Establishment clause--but ordered them to pay just $1, as “symbolic” damages.

Optional Participation 20 in AA is Constitutional

Mind you, in cases like this, the courts found that the government had forced the person to attend AA or NA. In other cases, where state or local officials simply made participation in AA one option for substance abusers, courts have not found any Establishment Clause violation 21.

AA is Protected by Religious Confidentiality 23

The basic assumption of all these cases--that AA is a religious organization--can affect other areas of the law. For example, under the laws of evidence, religious communications are considered confidential 22, much like attorney-client, or doctor-patient communications. In 2001, a federal court overturned the manslaughter conviction of an AA member because the prosecution 24 had relied partly on fellow AA members who testified that the defendant 25 had confessed his crime at AA meetings. The judge noted 26 that if AA is a religion for purposes of the Establishment Clause, then its communications must be treated just as confidentially 27 as those in a church.

As far as I know, nobody in these cases has argued that AA is not an effective program. To the contrary, everyone seems to acknowledge the organization’s strong track record. But AA members are required to put their trust in God and the government can’t force them to do that--even though the government does require that our currency say “in God we trust.”  Hey, I never promised the law would be logical.

Thank you for reading Legal Lad’s Quick and Dirty Tips for a More Lawful 28 Life.

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