Religion
Related: About this forumAmid religious debate, House approves magistrate recusal bill
Posted 6:20 p.m. today
Updated 27 minutes ago
By Laura Leslie and Matthew Burns
Raleigh, N.C. After a lengthy and heated debate, House lawmakers voted 65-45 Wednesday to tentatively approve a bill allowing magistrates and other public officials to refuse to perform marriages for religious reasons.
Senate Bill 2 would allow magistrates and employees of county register of deeds offices who object to same-sex marriage to recuse themselves from performing or recording any marriages, gay or straight, for a period of at least six months.
If all magistrates in a county recuse themselves from performing marriages, then the chief judge must request an outside magistrate or perform the marriages himself or herself. Similarly, if all employees of a register of deeds office recuse themselves, the elected register must issue marriage licenses.
The bill also specifies that civil marriages must be available in every county at least 10 hours a week, spread out over three business days. Currently, there is no minimum time set in state law, so the availability of civil marriage varies widely from one county to the next.
http://www.wral.com/house-approves-magistrate-recusal-bill/14672917/
1:51 video at link.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)rug
(82,333 posts)cbayer
(146,218 posts)Do you think it's constitutional.
rug
(82,333 posts)No matter how cutely they craft the bill.
I like the Democrats' response:
"The same-sex couple pays exactly the same taxes to support that magistrates salary as a heterosexual couple, and they do have the right to expect the same service," argued Rep. Grier Martin, D-Wake.
"Were creating a situation where people can discriminate against other members of our society at their discretion and not be disciplined," added Rep. Larry Hall, D-Durham. "Certain people have full rights that they vote for and pay for, and other people dont have those same full rights to treatment on an equal basis."