Coeur D'Alene compelled marriage celebration lawsuit a sign of things to come

The City of Coeur D'Alene is a defendant in a federal lawsuit brought by Donald and Evelyn Knapp, a husband-wife team of ordained ministers who perform wedding ceremonies in their family business, The Hitching Post, LLC (also a plaintiff). The City has said that the Knapps' refusal to perform a same-sex marriage ceremony would violate the City's nondiscrimination ordinance. The Knapps contend that the City's threatened punishment of them would violate the First and Fourteenth Amendments and Idaho's Religious Freedom Restoration Act.  

The complaint quotes a deputy city attorney as setting forth the city's stance and explaining how that stance depends on the Ninth Circuit's recent judicial redefinition of marriage in Idaho to require inclusion of same-sex couples:

“For profit wedding chapels are in a position now where last week the ban [on same-sex marriages] would have prevented them from performing gay marriages, this week gay marriages are legal, pending an appeal to the 9th Circuit… If you turn away a gay couple, refuse to provide services for them, then in theory you violated our code and you’re looking at a potential misdemeanor citation.”

It is noteworthy that this deputy city attorney describes the celebration of marriage ceromonies as just another "service," and the Knapps' refusal to celebrate a same-sex marriage ceremony as a refusal to provide services on the basis of sexual orientation. States that have statutorily redefined marriage to be an institution open to same-sex couples have included statutory exemptions for churches and clergy that would not require them to solemnize same-sex unions. Generally speaking, they distinguish between solemnization and other services related to marriage. Because Idaho's marriage redefinition has been accomplished by the judiciary instead of the legislature, the scope of obligations that may be imposed by state law (with which municipal law must typically comply) is unclear. To be sure, it is also unclear whether the Knapps' business--in contrast with the Knapps themselves--would have fallen within a statutory exemption even if there had been one in Idaho. But cases like this highlight the kinds of questions that will arise over the next several years as cities, states, and everyone else negotiates the changes that come from the federal judicial redefinition of marriage.

Eugene Volokh has provided a persuasive analysis concluding that the city's application of its nondiscrimination ordinance to the Knapps and The Hitching Post, LLC would violate the First Amendment's prohibition of compelled speech and the Idaho Religious Freedom Restoration Act. I continue to believe that an initial question in cases like these is whether a refusal to perform marriage premised on one's understanding of what marriage is amounts to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation so as to violate an anti-discrimination law. This is a question of the relevant municipal, state, or federal anti-discrimination law; here, a question of city law. I think that the city should reconsider its position on the meaning and application of that law. I further think that the city should reconsider its position on both First Amendment and state RFRA grounds. The best outcome very well could be a promise not to prosecute or impose liability under municipal law when doing so would violate federal law or state law, as would be the case here.

To the extent that this lawsuit is a sign of things to come, as I think it is, it would be nice if city and state officials could get the limits of anti-discrimination law right in the first instance without the need for judicial involvement. That said, it is a good tactical move to proceed directly to federal court. If one waits for prosecution in state court or to defend in state administrative proceedings, it will be much more difficult to get a federal forum for one's federal claims.