The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on
Wednesday dismissed a legal challenge to a North Carolina law that
allows some court officials to opt out of duties related to marrying
gay and lesbian couples.
The court said that the three couples
who filed the lawsuit lack standing, upholding a lower court's
ruling.
“Plaintiffs concede that the state
has not impeded or restricted their opportunity to get married,”
the 3-judge panel wrote. “One same-sex couple married in 2014,
another same-sex couple is engaged to be married, and the last pair
of plaintiffs, an interracial couple, married in 1976. Nonetheless,
they contend that their status as North Carolina taxpayers affords
them standing to challenge SB2. Because plaintiffs’ claim does not
fall within the narrow exception to the general bar against taxpayer
standing, their suit must be dismissed.”
Senate Bill 2 allows magistrates who
solemnize civil marriages to stop performing all marriages if they
have a “sincerely held religious objection.”
Luke Largess is the lead counsel
representing the plaintiffs.
“Senate Bill 2 expressly declares
that their religious beliefs are superior to their oath of judicial
office to uphold and support the federal constitution,” Largess
said in filing the lawsuit. “And the law spends public money to
advance those religious beliefs. That is a straightforward violation
of the First Amendment.”
Largess
told the Washington
Blade that his team was reviewing the court's opinion.