AA was originally founded as a religious program, but it has been adapted to non-religious contexts. The "higher power," as others have noted, does not need to be God, although that had been the original intent. The court certainly can order someone convicted of DUI or other alcohol-related offenses to attend AA but it cannot require that they do so at a religious AA.
When I saw the word "appoint" in the title, I thought that the OP meant could a court mandate that an AA group accept an atheist as its leader or coordinator or whatever the title is. I have no idea why they would do so, but this is the kind of thing that has always been wrangled over in courts; it's a question of the balance between the atheist's right not to be discriminated against for his religion, vs. a religious organization's right to free exercise which would presumably mean they can favor hiring people who will exercise the same religion as the organization.
Not that I'm a mod, but I don't see any reason for fearing the mods would close this thread; we are not discussing religion per se, but the legalities of a hypothetical situation where religion comes into play. As long as people can keep comments on this topic and not go flaming off about how religion or atheism or whatever are horrible things that ought to be outlawed or something, I think it's a fair question for the forum.
