Impact of same-sex marriage rulings on strict scrutiny inreligious exemption cases

[Roger Severino]

Art, I am curious to know why you think same-sex marriage states will not (ever?) impose new regulations on the power of clergy to solemnize civil marriages.  As for the religious liberty interests at stake, it is again, not a question of direct coercion, but of whether religious institutions that remain true to their religious identity will be allowed to retain a robust role in public life when that identity conflicts with the priorities or preferences of the state.  Religious solemnization of civil marriage is just one manifestation of this issue--partnerships with religious institutions and government in the provision of social services (like adoption or marriage counseling) is another, and the list goes on.  Another concern I had in mind was the fact that if the state does move to strip clergy of their solemnization power, it may do so selectively.  That is, only certain houses of worship would literally get the state seal of approval to solemnize marriages while others would not and the state's choice of winners and losers will turn precisely on each religious institutions' theology of marriage.-Roger Severino  
(Disclaimer: all opinions expressed are mine alone)


In a message dated 4/7/09 11:11:32 PM, rseverino1 at hotmail.com writes:



what is to stop Iowa from stripping
dissenting religious institutions, and only such institutions, of the power to
solemnize *civil* marriages? 





That seems unlikely to me, but what if it does -- how does that deprive a
religious institution of its *religious* liberty?






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