North Carolina Allows Officials to Refuse to Perform Gay Marriages


DURHAM, N.C. — Defying the governor, lawmakers on Thursday enacted a law that allows state court officials to refuse to perform a marriage if they have a “sincerely held religious objection,” a measure aimed at curtailing same-sex unions.

The Republican-controlled House voted 69-41 on Thursday to override a veto by Gov. Pat McCrory, also a Republican, who refused to sign the marriage bill in May. Mr. McCrory said at the time that although he believed that marriage should be between a man and a woman, he vetoed the bill because “no public official who voluntarily swears to support and defend the Constitution and to discharge all duties of their office should be exempt from upholding that oath.”

The State Senate, which is also controlled by Republicans, overrode Mr. McCrory’s veto June 1.

The law, which takes effect immediately, allows magistrates, along with assistant and deputy registers of deeds, to refuse to perform a marriage without facing punishment or charges of willfully failing to discharge their duties. Court officials who disclose a religious objection must stop performing all marriages for at least six months.

The governor condemned the move. “It’s a disappointing day for the rule of law and the process of passing legislation in North Carolina,” Mr. McCrory said in a statement.

Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union said it was too soon to say how a ruling expected this month by the United States Supreme Court regarding same-sex marriage might affect the North Carolina law.

The measure is one of a string of bills in states like Indiana, Arkansas and Louisiana to allow people to circumvent equal protection for same-sex couples on grounds of religious freedom. It is also part of a series of sharply conservative bills passed by North Carolina’s Republican-controlled legislature, including a bill signed last Friday by the governor that requires women who seek abortions to wait 72 hours before they can undergo the procedure.

North Carolina politics are often pulled between urban and college-town progressives and suburban, rural and military-town conservatives. The issue of same-sex marriage has swerved back and forth in recent years. In 2012, the voters approved an amendment to the state Constitution banning same-sex marriage. Two years later, a federal judge in Asheville, N.C., struck down the amendment.

The sponsors of the bill, introduced in January, said it was in direct response to the federal court ruling. In a February floor debate, a sponsor of the bill, E. S. Newton, a Republican state senator known as Buck, referred to “some wise old judges that think they know better than us, that they know more than God,” according to The Raleigh News & Observer. “I will not stand idly by and watch the demands of a few insist that a magistrate perform a wedding that he or she strongly believes to be immoral.”

However, the bill itself contains no language about same-sex marriage, leaving open the possibility that it could be used to refuse to perform any marriage for any reason.

The conservative North Carolina Values Coalition celebrated the vote to override the veto.

“It’s hard to believe that any governor — much less a conservative one — would veto a bill protecting the religious freedoms of his constituents. The House and the Senate made the right call in overriding Governor McCrory’s ill-advised veto and we are grateful for their continued leadership in fighting to preserve this fundamental American freedom,” the group’s executive director, Tami Fitzgerald, said in a statement.

Chris Sgro, the executive director of Equality North Carolina, which supports same-sex marriage, said he was surprised and disappointed. The group plans to challenge the law in court.

“We believe it is going to make us a national eyesore in North Carolina, which is even sadder because it is not the will of the people,” Mr. Sgro said. “We are going to be assessing legal steps.”

The bill had been on the House calendar since June 3. Ten members were absent for the vote. Lawmakers voted roughly on party lines, save three Democrats who voted to override the governor’s veto, and three Republicans who broke with their caucus to support it.

In another move criticized by supporters of same-sex marriage, Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan, a Republican, on Thursday signed a law allowing private agencies with state contracts to refuse to make adoption referrals that violate their religious beliefs. Supporters said the law codified existing practice in Michigan, but critics said it would allow discrimination against not just same-sex couples, but also religious minorities, single parents and others.

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