Judge dismisses case against North Carolina's gay marriage opt-out law
Source: Reuters
Wed Sep 21, 2016 | 2:56pm EDT
By Mica Rosenberg | NEW YORK
A federal judge threw out a challenge to a North Carolina law that allows government officials to refuse to perform same-sex marriages if they cite religious objections, claiming the couples who brought the suit failed to establish they were harmed by the law.
The six plaintiffs, who include gay couples, argued in the suit filed in U.S. District Court in Asheville that the legislation - Senate Bill 2 - allows magistrates and other officials performing marriages to put their personal beliefs before their sworn constitutional duty.
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North Carolina's Republican-led legislature passed the law in 2015 as social conservatives nationwide pushed for so-called "religious freedom bills" in response to same-sex marriage becoming legal.
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"Senate Bill 2 expressly declares that magistrates religious beliefs are superior to their oath of judicial office," said attorney Luke Largess from Tin Fulton Walker & Owen, which represented the couples in the case. "The law spends public money to advance those religious beliefs. That is a straightforward violation of the First Amendment." .............................
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-north-carolina-gaymarriage-idUSKCN11R2K5
The couples will be appealing the decision
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