Remember how earlier this month
voters affirmed legal marriage protections for same-sex couples in Maryland, Maine, Washington? Now Alliance Defending Freedom (formerly known as the Alliance Defense Fund) is reminding municipal clerks in those three states that they do not have to issue those marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Instead, the
ADF says that clerks should pass off their job duties to underlings who lack their religious objections:
Three new legal memos advise municipal clerks in Maine, county clerks in Maryland and county auditors in Washington that provisions in state law allow them to delegate responsibility for issuing the licenses to deputies or assistants who don’t have conscience-based objections to issuing the licenses to same-sex applicants. “No American should be forced to give up a constitutionally protected freedom, nor should any American be forced to give up his or her job to maintain that freedom,” said ADF Senior Counsel Austin R. Nimocks. “Religious freedom is paramount to every American, including those issuing marriage licenses. They can perform their job without violating their conscience.”
This story comes from
CharismaNews, which appears to be an online Christian news site. All this is to say that -- as of this moment -- all of the comments following that article are urging the very marriage license clerks to do their jobs. One person questioned whether this type of discriminating clerk exercised their right to religious choice by refusing to issue marriage licenses to Pagans or Muslims. Another person noted that these clerks are not vouching for the moral merits of their state's gay marriages. They are just reviewing the paperwork to ensure that each couple meets the legal requirements to actually receive a license.
