Mirror of Justice

A blog dedicated to the development of Catholic legal theory.
Affiliated with the Program on Church, State & Society at Notre Dame Law School.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Can a Judge Refuse to Conduct a Gay Marriage?

Here's one right in the Vischer wheelhouse.  This is the question that an anonymous New York judge asked the New York Judicial Ethics Committee.  In this judicial ethics opinion, the Committee largely did not answer it, though it did opine that the judge could choose to conduct only those weddings of his relatives and friends.  That would be tantamount, in the Committee's view, to refusing to conduct marriages "on a facially neutral basis" and the Rules Governing Judicial Conduct do not require a judge to conduct weddings.

https://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2012/01/can-a-judge-refuse-to-conduct-a-gay-marriage.html

DeGirolami, Marc | Permalink

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Unless the Legislature or Federal Law empower the Judge to refuse to officiate any wedding between any two people for any reason, the judge's refusal to officiate a same-sex marriage is not different from a refusal to officiate an interracial or inter-faith marriage.

sean s.