ACLJ
Wins Religious Discrimination Case Over "Morning-After"
Pill
Crosswalk.com
May 29, 2002
A U.S. District Court jury in Riverside, Calif., has found that
Riverside
County violated the constitutional rights of a nurse who was
fired from
her job after she refused to dispense medication known as a
"morning-after" pill. The case began in December 2000
when the American
Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ) filed suit against the Riverside
Neighborhood Health Center on behalf of Michelle Diaz, who worked
as a
Clinic Health Nurse at the center.
The
suit contended that Diaz was fired after she told her supervisor
that her deeply held religious beliefs prevented her from
distributing
medication designed to end pregnancies because she believed
she would be
participating in an abortion. The suit contended that she
was fired from
her job in June 1999 shortly after she talked to the news
media about
the "morning-after" pill controversy and explained
her position.
Following
a four-day trial in federal court that ended May 24th, the
jury found the county was liable on all three counts presented:
violated
her First Amendment rights of free speech; violated her rights
of
freedom of religion; and, failed to reasonably accommodate
her religious
beliefs. The jury also awarded damages totaling more than
$47,000 -
including $19,000 in damages for back pay, and more than $28,000
in
damages for emotional distress. The ACLJ was assisted in the
trial by
attorney Robert Tyler of the firm, Tyler & Dorsa in Temecula,
Calif.
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