Republicans refuse to accept the inevitable when they have lost on an issue. This is especially true of bigoted hate mongers. Now the issue of whether a state may nullify a federal law was decided in the civil war. Now North Carolina wants to extend the power to nullify to individual government employees.
Since marriage equality’s arrival in North Carolina this month, at least two magistrates have resigned from their roles in the state judicial system to avoid having to officiate marriages for same-sex couples. This week, Senate Leader Phil Berger (R) said he will introduce legislation that allows officiants [sic] to refuse to perform marriages that violate their religious beliefs.
According to Berger, who is continuing to fight the marriage equality ruling with House Speaker and Senate candidate Thom Tillis (R), “The court’s expansion of the freedoms of some should not violate the well-recognized constitutional rights of others.” He doesn’t believe complying with marriage equality should “require our state employees to compromise their core religious beliefs and First Amendment rights in order to protect their livelihoods.”
In his resignation letter, Rockingham County Magistrate John Kallam, Jr. said that he believes marrying same-sex couples “would desecrate a holy Institution established by God Himself.” Swain County Magistrate Judge Gilbert Breedlove said that he resigned because performing a same-sex marriage “was just something I couldn’t do because of my religious beliefs.” According to his reading of the Bible, “marriage is between a man and a wife; any other type of sexual activity other than that is what is defined as fornication.”… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Think Progress>
When it comes to Judge Breedlove, I disagree completely with his beliefs, but I respect his right to have his beliefs. However, his job is performing a service, and same sex couples are Constitutionally guaranteed the right to have that service performed. If he cannot do that job without violating his beliefs, he was absolutely right to resign. I respect that.
On the other hand, Berger is trying to say that the right to freedom of religion congers the right to demy the rights of others, and it just does not work that way.
Leviticus 25:44 gives me the right to possess slaves as long as they are purchased from a neighboring country. Now if Berger is right, than I get to exercise my right to own a Canadian, but sadly, Canadians have the right not to be held as slaves, so I must sadly accept that their right to freedom supersedes my religious right to own one. Dang!!
A political party, whose politicians would confer the right to violate the rights of the others is not fit to govern.
Get Out the VOTE!!!
11 Responses to “North Carolina Personal Nullification”
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Exactly right, T.C. When people can't perform the functions demanded by their job, they need to get out of the way and make room for someone who can. The idea of conferring special privileges or status to accommodate religious beliefs is total b.s.
I agree with your respect for Judge Breedlove, and also respect Magistrate Kallam; though his language was less tactful, he at least did the honorable thing. I also agree that Berger is a different kettle of decaying fish. They do say no one is totally useless, since one can always be a horrible example; and he is certainly a horrible example of the necessity for the separation of church and state. (BTW, it is a rare and wonderful pleasure to see "supersede" spelled and used correctly.)
I might add that Levitican Law was replaced in the Old Testament by Hamurabai Law (eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth) because punishment under Levitican Law was not commensurate with the crime (i.e., killing a man and his family and confiscating his land because he dropped something heavy on the wrong person's foot). I am glad that anyone who follows Levitican Law resigns from administering secular justice because that is completely inconsistent with their duties as an officer of the court.
Sometimes I think people come up with thier own solutions and then turn around and use the bible or use some kind of sickness that horbors in their soul to give them a reason to feel superior to others. That makes no sense. So my rule of thumb is don't even try.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein
This is a perfect example of the things that need to happen nationwide! If the people that hold office cannot fulfill their obligations of their offices, then they certainly need to step down! If that would only happen where all people were faced with laws that “go against their religious beliefs”, we would have a better working government today!
The laws that have been passed were the will of the people and they are what is wanted by the MAJORITY! If the Senate wants a super-majority every time a vote for a bill comes up, then let’s just poll the people! Let’s vote by popular vote. No electoral college, no districts, just a simple count of the popular vote!
I, too, respect the right to believe however you choose, and agree that the magistrate who resigned due tohis religious convictions was right to do so. However, the idea of letting individual state employees decide what they will or won't do on the job is ridiculous. This runs along the same line as allowing pharmacists to refuse to fill a prescription for birth control because it is against their religion. They are still getting away with that one.
My rights end at the end of my nose, and your rights end at the end of your nose. If, in the course of daily job requirements, a person cannot adhere to this stricture, then that person must remove himself from the equation. That is what Judge Breedlove did by resigning. That I can respect. What I can't respect is someone staying on the job and not completing all the duties.
"… I get to exercise my right to own a Canadian, but sadly, Canadians have the right not to be held as slaves, so I must sadly accept that their right to freedom supersedes my religious right to own one. Dang!!" — You know I'll hold you to that!
You weren't supposed to see that.
Brilliant comments – but at least this Judge actually resigned, almost all of the Repugs who hate things decide to bend, twist and flout the rule of law, till they can twist things into a shape they'd like themselves (filibustering and vote rigging come to mind) – and somehow they think that this is 'democracy' and 'legal' and 'honorable' to do so. I don't.
The prison trip went well. I'm pooped. Thanks all.