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Tennessee governor signs bill allowing government employees to refuse solemnizing marriages signed into law in Tennessee


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It's dumb, but I'm not sure I see the big problem.  They're still required to give any couple a marriage license.  The marriage is the paperwork.  The ceremony is just fluff, right?  Doesn't matter if you do it in a church, just have the clerk do the ceremony, or have an Elvis in Vegas do it.  Or not do a ceremony at all.  Have any officiant sign the certificate and then you file it.  Unless this is one of those "slippery slope" things I'm not seeing.

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5 minutes ago, Slug said:

It's dumb, but I'm not sure I see the big problem.  They're still required to give any couple a marriage license.  The marriage is the paperwork.  The ceremony is just fluff, right?  Doesn't matter if you do it in a church, just have the clerk do the ceremony, or have an Elvis in Vegas do it.  Or not do a ceremony at all.  Have any officiant sign the certificate and then you file it.  Unless this is one of those "slippery slope" things I'm not seeing.

 

The marriage license only provides the legal permission for the marriage, but doesn't constitute the marriage itself.  In order for the marriage to exist, it must be executed (solemnized) by someone recognized by the state law to fulfill that function.

 

The issue is that the refusal to execute that task throws up a potential barrier (economic, etc.) to the marriage that the couple will have to overcome.

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18 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

The marriage license only provides the legal permission for the marriage, but doesn't constitute the marriage itself.  In order for the marriage to exist, it must be executed (solemnized) by someone recognized by the state law to fulfill that function.

 

The issue is that the refusal to execute that task throws up a potential barrier (economic, etc.) to the marriage that the couple will have to overcome.

 

Even if you didn't need the solemnization for the marriage to be valid it would still be squarely back in separate but equal territory to allow government employees to pick and choose which marriages to solemnize.

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4 hours ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

Alito is absolutely salivating to have this turn into a case that appears before him in order to have the opportunity to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges

 

I mean, it's absolutely going to be a case. Although I sort of thought this was settled law already.

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45 minutes ago, Reputator said:

 

I mean, it's absolutely going to be a case. Although I sort of thought this was settled law already.


The thing that is settled is existing same-sex marriages. Unless overturned by a new Congress, any gay couple that gets married somewhere in America has to be recognized as married. This was made into a law in 2022 under Biden.
 

The right to marry in any state is only protected by the Supreme Court. But if it is overturned, and a gay couple in a state that legalized gay marriage moves to a state where it’s not legal, they are still recognized as married and get all rights pertaining to it.

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