Kentucky Judge Refuses to Conduct Secular Wedding Ceremony for Couple

[KamaAina]

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2016/07/14/kentucky-judge-refuses-to-conduct-secular-wedding-ceremony-for-couple/

Last week, I heard from a reader named Mandy Heath who is planning to marry her fiancé Jon later this month. Because a friend without any legal credentials was going to perform the ceremony, they planned to visit a local courthouse in Trigg County, Kentucky the day before the wedding to take care of the official paperwork under the watch of a judge. It’s something couples do all over the country.

She just had one request for County Judge Executive Hollis Alexander: Because she and her fiancé were both non-religious, they didn’t want any mention of God in the ceremony.

The judge wouldn’t do it. He told them, “I will be unable to perform your wedding ceremony… I include God in my ceremonies and I won’t do one without.”

There was no other judge who could perform wedding ceremonies, so he directed them to a judge in a neighboring county.

So Kim Davis is a judge now?

[TreasonousBastard]

1. Too bad he can't be recalled, fired, or whatever for that..

and if they complain too loudly the community will probably back the judge.

We still have a long way to go.

[Initech]

2. Then this judge should be removed from the bench.

[tonyt53]

3. In KY each county has a "Judge Executive". They have no judicial powers.

They are basically over the county government. These people used to have judicial powers in misdemeanor matters, but that power was removed about 30 years ago. Instead of changing everything, they changed the title to add "Executive" (there are other elected people serving, like magistrates, too) and removed most judicial powers. The one that was kept was to allow them to perform justice of the peace functions, which would include marriage. So, the guy is an elected person, just like Davis.