Christian Legal Ethics … “too religious” for Texas Bar Association

So what is wrong with teaching lawyers Christian legal ethics? Everything, says the State Bar of Texas; the course is “too religious”, says that distinguished body, composed of representatives of one of the most maligned and perhaps ethically challenged professions in the nation.

Professor William Piatt

Last October St. Mary’s University School of Law, along with the Catholic Lawyers’ Guild of San Antonio, and the Christian Legal Society of San Antonio, sponsored a continuing legal program entitled “Christian Ethical Perspectives: Faith and Law Today.” The program was given a one-time provisional accreditation by the Texas Bar. However, the Bar has now informed sponsors that it will receive future accreditation only for those portions of the program devoted to secular law and legal ethics.

That, of course, didn’t sit well with the sponsors who have appealed the non-accreditation decision. Joining Deacon Mike Manno and Gina Noll this week will be St. Mary’s Law Professor William Piatt who told the Cardinal Newman Society that the Bar is going out of its way “to make it impossible for Catholics to put on a continuing legal education program that says anything about faith or morality.”

Professor Piatt specializes in constitutional law and jurisprudence with a focus on Catholic perspectives. Prior to joining the St. Mary’s law faculty he served as the assistant attorney general in New Mexico and later as assistant public defender. He also created the first-in-the-nation Center for Terrorism Law.

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