Why Clerks Should Perform Gay Marriages
Following the Supreme Court's ruling that allows same-sex marriages in California, a number of county clerks are balking at performing the marriages or issuing licenses based on their political and/or religious beliefs.While I can respect the individual views of these individuals and their right to have them, government employees are duty bound to follow the law and to treat all citizens equally. As of now, same-sex marriage is the law. If there are government employees or officials who can not enforce the law then they need to either find a new job or transfer to a position that would not put them in a role where they would be required to perform the marriages.
This is somewhat akin to public college or school officials who want to ban military recruiters from coming on campus. However the law states that schools that receive federal funds must allow the recruiters on campus. If the people who work on the campuses don't agree with that, they need to find another job.
When government employees begin to think they have the authority to shirk the law, we're in trouble.
Labels: Gay Marriage
Posted by Michael Higby @ 5/28/2008 09:27:00 PM
4 Comments:
Wait a sec....didn't Villar say he was going to perform as many gay marriages as possible???? It's the first time he's offered to do some ACTUAL work!
"government employees are duty bound to follow the law"
Tell that to:
Tony Villar
Willian Bratton
Tom LeBong
My concern is that it took just four people to abridge a majority of voters in a state-wide vote. This, imho, is abridging the will of the electorate.
If the opinion of the majority of the court is that the minority will should prevail, then I suppose every proposition or candidate receiving the least amount of votes should be declared victorious in any election, somewhat similar to a golf game. If this is the logic the court employed, the minority opinion of the court should have prevailed.
The clerks refusing to marry gays are employing a strategy with historical precedent - that of Andrew Jackson. When he learned that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against his invasion of Florida, he remarked, "Let the Court try to enforce their ruling."
Michael Finnegan
CD-5
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