NORTH CAROLINA: Senate Passes Bill To Allow Refusal To Perform Gay Marriages

The bill would allow any state official to refuse to officiate ANY marriages based on "sincerely held religious beliefs."

NORTH CAROLINA: Another Attempt To Allow Officials To Duck Marriage Duties

Yesterday was the first day of North Carolina's legislative session and already there's an attempt to legalize the refusal to issue marriage licenses and conduct courthouse marriage ceremonies. But since they'd likely fail if they attempted to target only gay couples, the new bill is broader.

Sen. Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, filed a bill to allow magistrates to refuse to preside at same-sex weddings and assistant and deputy registers of deeds to not issue licenses based on "sincerely held religious objection." But any such recusal must last at least six months, and the officials couldn't be involved in traditional marriages either. "What we're talking about is trying to protect or at least recognize and provide an accommodation for people who have sincerely held beliefs that are protected by the First Amendment," Berger said in an interview with The Associated Press. "So what we're trying to is find a balance." Democratic lawmakers and the gay-rights group Equality North Carolina said at a news conference such a recusal measure is discrimination in disguise against gays and lesbians. Berger said requiring the exemption for all marriages ensures court officials aren't picking and choosing whom they will wed. But Rep. Rick Glazier, D-Cumberland, said it doesn't assuage the ulterior motive of bias and could lead to a slippery slope of court officials refusing all sorts of expected duties.

A separate bill to legalize anti-gay discrimination by businesses is expected to be introduced shortly.

NORTH CAROLINA: State GOP To Appeal Same-Sex Marriage Ruling To SCOTUS

Via the Washington Post:

North Carolina lawmakers said they will file a petition this week with the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its appeal regarding marriage for same-sex couples. “We’ve said all along North Carolina voters deserve to have their voices heard, and this important issue won’t ever be settled until a final decision is made by the U.S. Supreme Court,” Sen. Phil Berger (R) said in a statement. The North Carolina legislature banned marriage between same-sex couples in 1996, and in 2012, voters approved a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. In November, a federal judge struck down the state’s marriage ban. “Regardless of where you stand on the ultimate issue, it is important to protect the will of the North Carolina voters who overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment,” Rep. Tim Moore (R) said in a statement.

NOM and the state GOP appealed to the Fourth Circuit Court back in November.

NORTH CAROLINA: States Debunks GOP Lies That Magistrates Can Refuse Gays

Via the Asheville Citizen-Times:

The chief administrator of North Carolina's courts says Republican party leaders may have misled magistrates on whether they could refrain from performing same-sex marriages. John Smith, director of the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts, detailed his concerns in a three-page letter to Senate leader Phil Berger, who along with more than two dozen Senate Republicans had asked in an Oct. 24 letter that he revise a directive ordering magistrates to perform civil weddings for gay couples or face losing their jobs. "I am concerned that the widespread publicity may have misled magistrates as to their legal rights and remedies and that some may have relied to their detriment on its representations," Smith wrote in the Nov. 5 letter to Berger. "The law is now clear that any magistrate who does officiate over marriages must comply with the court rulings mandating equal treatment as to same-sex marriages," Smith wrote.

"Misled" is the polite way of saying "totally fucking lied."

NORTH CAROLINA: NOM & GOP Appeal Marriage Ruling To Fourth Circuit Court

Via Raleigh's News & Observer:

Within hours of a split ruling by a 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel upholding gay marriage bans in four states, attorneys for North Carolina legislative leaders filed notice in the federal courts of their plans to appeal rulings in North Carolina that struck down a gay marriage ban. The court document, filed by John C. Eastman, a California lawyer and chairman of the National Organization for Marriage, outlines the plans of Phil Berger, president pro tem of the N.C. Senate, and Thom Tillis, speaker of the state House, to appeal a ruling in October by U.S. District Judge William Osteen Jr. that nullified a 2012 amendment to the state constitution defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Though Osteen allowed the legislators to intervene in the case on a narrow basis, Eastman’s notice states that the Republican legislative leaders do not believe that the federal district court put limits on their arguments during appeal.

Read the notice of appeal at Equality Case Files. NOM and the GOP were granted permission to intervene by the above court last month, although the court essentially told them they are wasting their time.

NORTH CAROLINA: GOP State Senate Leader To File Bill Making It Legal To Refuse To Marry Same-Sex Couples

Via the News & Observer:

Senate leader Phil Berger said Tuesday that he would introduce a bill that would protect the jobs of magistrates, registrars of deeds and their employees who refuse to officiate at weddings for members of the same-sex if their refusal is based on religious beliefs. A magistrate in Berger’s home county of Rockingham quit because he said marrying same-sex couples would violate his religious beliefs. “The court’s expansion of the freedoms of some should not violate the well-recognized constitutional rights of others,” Berger said in a statement. “Complying with the new marriage law imposed by the courts should not require our state employees to compromise their core religious beliefs and First Amendment rights in order to protect their livelihoods.”

Equality North Carolina ain't having it: "If Senator Berger insists on being an extremist and pushing unconstitutional legislation, we will be fully prepared to fight this at the legislature in tandem with the business community." (Tipped by JMG reader Sean)

GOP House Candidate Has Grammy Sadz

The final image is a reboot by Equality North Carolina.