Pirate's Cove

The NY Times is really pumped up over the lawsuit filed by a bunch of (fake) religious leaders here in North Carolina I mentioned Monday. Other lefties, like NPR and Slate are also thrilled. There’s something they missed within the pesky laws of NC, as National Review’s Matthew J. Frank notes. The suit deals with the “religious” leaders, who fail to follow the Bible, believing that they can get in legal trouble for performing a gay marriage

The denomination argues that a North Carolina law criminalizing the religious solemnization of weddings without a state-issued marriage license violates the First Amendment. Mr. Clark said that North Carolina allows clergy members to bless same-sex couples married in other states, but otherwise bars them from performing “religious blessings and marriage rites” for same-sex couples, and that “if they perform a religious blessing ceremony of a same-sex couple in their church, they are subject to prosecution and civil judgments.”

But

These claims are patently false.  The complaint itself, immediately after the last line above, quotes the relevant statutory language, but the authors of the complaint evidently do not understand it:

a. North Carolina General Statute § 51-6 states: “Solemnization without license unlawful. No minister, officer, or any other person authorized to solemnize a marriage under the laws of this State shall perform a ceremony of marriage between a man and woman, or shall declare them to be husband and wife, until there is delivered to that person a license for the marriage of the said persons, signed by the register of deeds of the county in which the marriage license was issued or by a lawful deputy or assistant.”

b. North Carolina General Statute § 51-7 states: “Every minister, officer, or any other person authorized to solemnize a marriage under the laws of this State, who marries any couple without a license being first delivered to that person, as required by law, or after the expiration of such license, or who fails to return such license to the register of deeds within 10 days after any marriage celebrated by virtue thereof, with the certificate appended thereto duly filled up and signed, shall forfeit and pay two hundred dollars ($200.00) to any person who sues therefore, and shall also be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.”

These two provisions must be read together, in the context of the state’s decision to recognize marriages only between a man and a woman.  § 51-6 requires authorized persons to act only on valid marriage licenses, if they are going to “declare” a couple “husband and wife” for civil legal purposes.  § 51-7 further tells these authorized persons that they are answerable in any case where they do not first get the license, or fail to act on it before it expires, or fail to return it properly finished to the register of deeds in ten days.

These non-Bible following religious leaders can marry gays to their hearts content. They just cannot file any marriage licenses, and no gay marriages will be recognized by the North Carolina government. As Heritage also notes, the law does not violate religious liberty, because they can perform a church service. It just won’t be recognized.

If they don’t like it, I-95 and I-85 go north and south. I-40 heads west. There are also a vast number of roads that head out of NC and towards the liberal states that allow gay marriage. States which liberals have ultimately ruined, hence they move out to ruin our states.