By the end of June — and as early as next week — the Supreme Court is expected to rule on the legality of gay marriage nationwide. In a pre-emptive move to refocus narrative and legislative control at the state level, two states this week enacted laws designed to protect religious objection to same-sex couples. Here's how:
North Carolina passed a law Thursday saying government officials can refuse to perform same-sex marriages based on religious grounds. The Republican legislature, saying the law "protects sincerely held religious beliefs while also ensuring that magistrates are available in all jurisdictions to perform lawful marriages,” overrode Republican Gov. Pat McCrory's earlier veto of the bill. Utah passed a smiliar law earlier this year.
In Michigan, Republican Gov. Rick Snyder signed a law Thursday that will allow private adoption agencies to decline referrals that would violate their religious beliefs. The state joins Virginia and North Dakota in passing legislation that explicitly cites religious belief as reasonable cause for refusing prospective parents at adoption agencies. The law has raised concern over what appears to be a thinly veiled means to deny same-sex couples a chance at adopting. Snyder has rejected the concern, according to CBS,saying, “Our goal is to get the maximum number of kids adopted by loving families regardless of the loving family’s background, whether they’re straight or gay.”
Civil rights groups including the ACLU and the Human Rights Campaign have already issued strong condemnations of both laws. "Allowing public officials the ability to opt-out of the job they are paid by the public to do is completely contrary to the purpose of public service," said Marty Rouse, National Field Director for the Human Rights Campaign.
The Supreme Court will rule on the legality of same-sex marriage in the next few weeks. Stay tuned here for more coverage.
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