Posted on 04/30/2015 8:47:37 AM PDT by BlatherNaut
"States could force Catholic priests to perform same-sex ‘marriages’ or lose legal status: Justice Scalia"
If the Supreme Court rules that same-sex “marriage” is a constitutional right, one justice has said that the government could force clergy of all denominations to perform gay “weddings” or lose the ability to officiate any state-sanctioned marriage.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Obergefell v. Hodges, the case that will decide whether the Constitution forbids states from upholding marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Among the exchanges, Justice Antonin Scalia repeatedly noted that if the High Court finds same-sex "marriage" is a constitutional right, then priests, ministers, rabbis, and imams will be required to perform such ceremonies – regardless of their religious beliefs – or face state penalties.
Justice Scalia repeatedly suggested that once a constitutional right to marry by same-sex couples was enshrined by the court, a member of the clergy could not be given civil marriage powers by the state unless he agreed to perform any and all marriages that the nation legally recognizes.
"Every state allows ministers to marry people, and their marriages are effective under state law,” Scalia said. “That will not be the case if, indeed, we hold, as a constitutional matter, that the state must marry two men."
As it stands, most clergy serve a dual role, celebrating church nuptials but also signing legal documents allowing the state to legally recognize that marriage. But if they refuse to conduct same-sex rituals, government officials may strip clergy of their state legal standing, rendering their marriages legally invalid in the eyes of the state government.
(Excerpt) Read more at lifesitenews.com ...
Even if they did, they would not be any more immune to state dictat than any business.
I honestly state that the quiet of mass...was loud to the noise of the homily.
So, assuming gay marriage is found to be a constitutional right, couldn’t a minister refuse to marry gays in his church under the same premise that a business owner uses to deny someone their constitutional right to carry their gun into his store?
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