Florida’s counseling ban headed to appeals
Florida joined far left states with a radical counseling ban, an ordinance adopted by the city of Tampa which prohibits licensed counselors from providing talk therapy to minors seeking to reduce or eliminate their unwanted same-sex attractions, behaviors, or identity.
“The city of Tampa has no authority to prohibit counselors from providing counsel which their clients seek,” said Liberty Counsel’s Mat Staver. “The government has no business eavesdropping inside the counseling rooms, and the city has no authority to enact a local counseling regulation.”
This from the February 14 press release:
Late yesterday, within 59 minutes of a judge’s ruling on a counseling ban, Liberty Counsel filed a notice of appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on behalf of Dr. Robert Otto, LMFT and Dr. Julie Hamilton, LMFT. These counselors provide life-saving counsel to minors who desperately desire to conform their attractions, behaviors, and gender confusion to their sincerely held religious beliefs.
Late yesterday, District Court Judge Robin Rosenberg issued a ruling denying the preliminary injunction against the counseling bans passed by the City of Boca Raton and Palm Beach County, Florida. Incredibly, the court stated that “the Court declines to announce a standard of review for this case. Based on Wollschlaeger, the ordinances likely affect protected speech, and are therefore subject to a higher level of review than rational basis review. The ordinances also seem to regulate on the basis of their content, which would compel strict scrutiny under Reed.” The Wollschlaegercase is a controlling Court of Appeals decision and the Reed case is a controlling U.S. Supreme Court case.
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