Ohio judges who perform civil marriages may not refuse to conduct a ceremony for a gay couple, nor may they refuse to do all marriages based on personal beliefs opposing gay marriage, the Ohio Supreme Court’s Board for Professional Conduct said.
The ruling follows the refusal by a judge in Toledo to conduct a same-sex ceremony for a couple in July, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that gay marriage was a right in all states. Toledo Municipal Judge C. Allen McConnell said in a written statement he was following his personal and Christian beliefs.
But the professional conduct board, in an advisory opinion issued Friday and announced Monday, said refusing to perform the ceremony on that basis amounts to a violation of a judge’s oath of office.
The issue was put to the Board for Professional Conduct after McConnell sought guidance from the Supreme Court. The state’s highest court does not issue advisory opinions. Rather, they are issued through the professional conduct board.
The U.S. Supreme Court, in a ruling on gay marriage bans in Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Michigan, held that such state actions violated the U.S. Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment.
After the case, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Attorney General Mike DeWine, who both favor traditional marriage, said that the court’s ruling established same-sex marriage as the law of the land and that Ohio should move on.
But the case has prompted national discussion about whether individuals, churches and businesses will be able to personally reject participation in such marriages without reprisal.
In its opinion, the Board of Professional Responsibility noted that a judge who declined to perform same-sex marriages while agreeing to perform opposite-sex ceremonies, or who declined to perform any further ceremonies as a result of opposition to gay marriage, risked putting the impartiality of the court into question.
Click here to read more of this story and the complete report.
About Marion Online News
