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Friday, March 13, 2009

Minneapolis City Officials Face Lawsuit Hearing Over Firing Pro-Life Psychologist

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(LifeNews.com) -- Minneapolis city officials are headed to court [today] to defend their actions in an employment discrimination lawsuit filed by a fired pro-life psychologist. Michael Campion filed suit after the city fired him after it learned that he was affiliated with a pro-life group.

Officials in the Minnesota city “suspended” Dr. Michael Campion, a psychologist who performed employment testing for Minneapolis. That occurred shortly after city officials learned of his affiliation with pro-life Illinois Family Institute, a Christian group.

After learning of his political views, city administrators hired an independent psychological testing company to evaluate Campion in July 2006. Although the results showed no evidence that his work was flawed or biased, the city disregarded the analysis and terminated its relationship with Campion.

His subsequent bid for the city’s psychological testing work was denied in favor of a less-experienced and more expensive contractor, even though the psychological testing company assessed him as performing beyond expectation and as being “clearly an expert in this line of work.”

The Alliance Defense Fund, a pro-life law firm, took his case and filed suit. The U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota will hold a hearing on that on Friday afternoon.

“The government shouldn't penalize Christian contractors for their beliefs," ADF litigation counsel Jim Campbell told LifeNews.com today. “When the city of Minneapolis terminated their relationship with this doctor for no reason other than his affiliation with a pro-family group, it clearly violated his constitutional rights.”

ADF senior legal counsel Brian Raum also chimed in on the case. “Officials for the city of Minneapolis should base their contracting decisions on experience and qualifications, not on their disagreement with pro-family beliefs,” said Raum. “Terminating their relationship with Dr. Campion despite his tried and proven track record was completely unjustifiable.”

Related web sites:
Alliance Defense Fund - http://www.telladf.org

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