Summary
Syracuse City Court Judge Felicia Pitts Davis refused to officiate a same-sex wedding, citing religious beliefs.
Another judge, Mary Anne Doherty, performed the ceremony.
Pitts Davis’ actions, considered discriminatory under New York judicial ethics and the Marriage Equality Act, are under review by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct
They aren’t hired to perform weddings. They are hired to judge court proceedings. As a judge, they’re granted the ability to perform weddings on their own time. But that’s up to them.
I’m curious, do people like you ever look at your previous comments, see that they’re all massively downvoted and no one is upvoting them and think “maybe I’m in the wrong?”
I usually know going in, which of my views will be popular or not.
I’ve never been surprised at which ones are really unpopular.
And no, down votes have never made me think I may be wrong.
Some arguments have, certainly.
In this specific case for instance, I learned that the requirements in New York for a judge to “perform” a wedding, are extremely limited. And she wouldn’t even have to say anything. Just witness the vows, and sign the form. Which is very different from making a speech or statement or actively participating. With such limited requirements there’s really no excuse for her to refuse. Save possibly, for ignorance of how limited the requirements really are.
But in any case, the best solution for this kind of situation, is not to force Judges to perform a ceremony they’re against, but to change the system so no ceremony is needed. A marriage, legally speaking, is nothing more than a contract between individuals. As far as the state is concerned, there’s no reason for anything more formal than having it notarized and dropped at the clerks office. A judge or other officiant shouldn’t even be needed. A system like that would take the entire issue off the table.
Ok, so you don’t know ny state law at all. Cool!
Edit: for anyone else who doesn’t know ny state law and didn’t want to read the article to read how she violated it: “Judges are authorized, but not obligated, to perform marriages. Judges who choose to perform marriages may not unlawfully discriminate when deciding which couples they will marry.” As she married a hetero couple right before them and then walked out in the middle of her shift when it was this couple’s turn, there’s going to need to be clearly documented extenuating circumstances for this to have been anything but a violation of her duty.