Joseph Nussbaumer, Jr. v. Secretary, Florida Dept of Children and Families

Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit·Decided September 4, 2025·No. 24-14082·Published

Opinion

FOR PUBLICATION

In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit

No. 24-14082 Non-Argument Calendar

JOSEPH WM. NUSSBAUMER, JR., Plaintiff-Appellant, versus

SECRETARY, FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILIES, Defendant-Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida D.C. Docket No. 4:22-cv-00448-MW-MAF

USCA11 Case: 24-14082 Document: 31-1 Date Filed: 09/04/2025 Page: 2 of 20

2 Opinion of the Court 24-14082

Before NEWSOM, KIDD, and TJOFLAT, Circuit Judges. TJOFLAT, Circuit Judge:

Florida law requires those convicted of domestic violence1 complete a batterers’ intervention program (“BIP”). But Florida does not offer BIPs. Instead, private parties offer courses, and the state’s Department of Children and Family (“DCF”) certifies and regulates them. DCF sets BIP curriculum standards and prohibits courses from employing any “faith-based ideology associated with a particular religion or denomination.”

Dr. Joseph Wm. Nussbaumer, Jr. is a Florida minister and licensed clinical Christian psychologist.2 He was a BIP provider for court-mandated participants for thirty years, largely without proper certification. In 2022, Dr. Nussbaumer sent in a formal application to become certified as a BIP provider, but he was rejected by DCF. Because courts and probation officers are now vetting providers for DCF certification, Dr. Nussbaumer is unable to see court-ordered participants. DCF refuses to certify Dr. Nussbaumer because his curriculum incorporates the “Biblical view of domestic violence” and provides a patient-specific approach addressing

1 Domestic violence offenses, under Florida law, include “assault, aggravated

assault, battery, aggravated battery, sexual assault, sexual battery, stalking, aggravated stalking, kidnapping, false imprisonment, or any criminal offense resulting in physical injury or death of one family or household member by another family or household member.” Fla. Stat. § 741.28 (2024). 2 Dr. Nussbaumer is licensed by the Federal Association of Christian Counse-

lors and Therapists, for which he serves on the board.

24-14082 Opinion of the Court 3

substance abuse, anger management, and impulse control as causal factors for domestic violence.

Dr. Nussbaumer sued DCF, alleging it violated his rights under the Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment . The District Court granted summary judgment for DCF, concluding that court-ordered BIPs are government speech, and their content can be set by the state. After careful review, for the reasons set forth below, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND In 1995, Florida enacted a law requiring those found guilty of a crime of domestic violence to attend a BIP as a condition of probation. Ch. 95-195, § 19, Fla. Laws (1995); see Fla. Stat. § 948.038 (2024). The law established an Office for Certification and Monitoring of Batterers’ Intervention Programs within the Department of Corrections to “certify and monitor both programs and personnel providing direct services” to court-ordered participants. Ch. 95- 195, § 16, Fla. Laws (1995). The purpose of certification was to “uniformly and systematically standardize programs to hold those who perpetrate acts of domestic violence responsible for those acts and to ensure safety for victims of domestic violence.” Id. § 17.

The law directed the Department of Corrections to promulgate rules governing standards of care, appropriate intervention approaches , program content, and qualifications of providers, among other facets of BIPs. Id. It required, in part, that such rules specifically establish:

(1) That the primary purpose of the programs shall be

4 Opinion of the Court 24-14082

victim safety and the safety of the children, if present. (2) That the batterer shall be held accountable for acts of domestic violence. (3) That the programs shall be at least 29 weeks in length and shall include 24 weekly sessions, plus appropriate intake, assessment, and orientation programming . (4) That the program be a psychoeducational model that employs a program content based on tactics of power and control by one person over another. (5) That the programs and those who are facilitators, supervisors, and trainees be certified to provide these programs through initial certification and that the programs and personnel be annually monitored to ensure that they are meeting specified standards. Id.

In 2001, the regulatory authority under the law was moved from the Department of Corrections to DCF. Ch. 2001-183, § 1, Fla. Laws (2001). And in 2007, DCF promulgated its first rule. Fla. Admin Code 65H-2.005 (repealed Mar. 21, 2013). The rule prescribed mandatory program attributes and prohibited “content that includes faith-based ideology associated with a particular religion or denomination.” Id.

In 2012, the Florida Legislature repealed the certification and monitoring program and stripped DCF of its regulatory function. Ch. 2012-147, §§ 12-13, Fla. Laws (2012). For the next nine years, BIPs no longer needed certification but remained subject to minimum standards, including that they prioritize victim safety, hold

24-14082 Opinion of the Court 5

the batterer accountable, and use content based on a psychoeducational model addressing the tactics of power and control. Id. § 13. In 2021, the Legislature reinstituted the certification and monitoring program, again vesting DCF with rulemaking power. Ch. 2021- 152, §§ 3-5, Fla. Laws (2021). Finally, in 2022, DCF issued the regulation at issue here (the “Regulation”):

65H-2.017 Program Curriculum. (1) The program curriculum shall be based on a psychoeducational or cognitive behavioral therapy intervention model that recognizes domestic violence and dating violence as the result of one person in an intimate relationship systematically using tactics of coercion , emotional abuse and physical violence in order to assert power and control over the other. The curriculum shall incorporate the following elements /content:

(a) An educational approach that assigns responsibility for the violence solely to the batterer in taking responsibility for the violence. (b) Encourages the batterer to develop critical thinking skills that will allow the batterer to rethink their behavior and identify behavior choices other than violence, (c) Addresses intimate partner violence as a learned behavior, not an impulse control issue, (d) Domestic violence is not provoked or the result of substance abuse and recognizes substance abuse patterns in domestic violence, (e) – (k) [omitted]

(2) The program curriculum shall not include the

6 Opinion of the Court 24-14082

following elements:

(a) Couples, marriage or family therapy, or any manner of victim participation; (b) Anger management techniques that identify anger as the cause of domestic violence; (c) Theories or techniques that identify poor impulse control as the primary cause of the domestic violence or identify psychopathy on the part of either party as a primary cause of domestic violence; (d) Fair fighting techniques; or (e) Faith-based ideology associated with a particular religion or denomination.

Fla. Admin Code 65H-2.017 (2025) (emphasis added). Dr. Joseph Wm. Nussbaumer, Jr. has provided services to hundreds of court-mandated participants as a BIP provider since the beginning of Florida’s program. Dr. Nussbaumer was also a non-lawyer member of the Florida Bar Mental Health Committee, which recommended the creation of a BIP to the Florida Legislature . He holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Counseling Psychology from “Freedom University” and is licensed as a clinical Christian Psychologist by the Federal Association of Christian Counselors and Therapists, for which he serves on the board.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Joseph Nussbaumer, Jr. v. Secretary, Florida Dept of Children and Families, (11th Cir. 2025).

Joseph Nussbaumer, Jr. v. Secretary, Florida Dept of Children and Families (Joseph Nussbaumer, Jr. v. Secretary, Florida Dept of Children and Families) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Cantwell v. Connecticut
310 U.S. 296 (Supreme Court, 1940)
Sherbert v. Verner
374 U.S. 398 (Supreme Court, 1963)
Police Dept. of Chicago v. Mosley
408 U.S. 92 (Supreme Court, 1972)
Bowen v. Roy
476 U.S. 693 (Supreme Court, 1986)
Johanns v. Livestock Marketing Assn.
544 U.S. 550 (Supreme Court, 2005)
Pleasant Grove City v. Summum
555 U.S. 460 (Supreme Court, 2009)
Lester J. Smith v. Brian Owens
848 F.3d 975 (Eleventh Circuit, 2017)
Matal v. Tam
582 U.S. 218 (Supreme Court, 2017)
Sunpreme Inc. v. United States
924 F.3d 1198 (Federal Circuit, 2019)
Richard Leake v. James T. Drinkard
14 F.4th 1242 (Eleventh Circuit, 2021)
Shurtleff v. Boston
596 U.S. 243 (Supreme Court, 2022)
Kennedy v. Bremerton School Dist.
597 U.S. 507 (Supreme Court, 2022)