Magistrate "Opt-Out" Law Now Being Challenged in Court

The latest NC Republican law to get challenged in federal court -- Senate Bill 2, passed this past June, which allows magistrates and employees of registers of deeds offices in the state to refuse to marry same-sex couples. (Gov. Squishy vetoed it but was quickly overridden by his BFFs in the NC House & Senate.)

The law allows magistrates et al. who object to same-sex marriage to refuse to perform any marriages. The workers may decide on the spur of the moment, when a couple presents themselves for marriage, but the worker opting out would then be barred from performing all marriages for at least six months. That provision was presumably added for the appearance of non-discriminatory even-handedness.

Bottomline, though, the law allows public servants to decide which of their job duties to perform and for which taxpayers to perform them. That ain't right.

From the press release issued by Equality NC: "This morning six plaintiffs filed a federal lawsuit challenging Senate Bill 2. Ansley v. North Carolina challenges Senate Bill 2 under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. The plaintiffs are represented by Tin Fulton Walker & Owen, a Charlotte-based law firm."

The team of lawyers representing the plaintiffs in this case (three same-sex couples) also helped guide one of the suits against NC's Amendment One, which now can be found in that big dustbin of history.