- Ezra Wyrick is a Tennessee writer and consultant focusing on legislative accountability at the state level. He is also a contributing writer for Young Voices.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee recently signed a bill into law allowing public officials to refuse to solemnize marriages.
When I first heard about the bill, I was under the mistaken impression that it applied only to ministers. However, upon further examination, I realized that it goes much deeper than that. Rather than simply reaffirming the right of ministers to refuse to perform marriages, the law also allows discrimination by public officials in the solemnization of marriages. I think this aspect of the law raises serious equal protection issues.
I have been a strong defender of the freedom of individuals to associate (or choose not to associate) with whomever they want.
While I fundamentally disagree with discrimination, I also believe that a free society must respect the rights of individuals to choose their associates. But if we want to preserve the equally important principle of equal protection, then freedom of association cannot apply to public officials. Laws must be applied without discrimination and legal duties must be fulfilled equally. Anything less represents a violation of equal protection.
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The Supreme Court has consistently upheld the equal application of the law, as demonstrated in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) and Obergefell v. Hodges (2015). In the first, the Court ruled that state laws establishing separate schools for black and white students were unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause. In the latter case, the Court held that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Public officials who knowingly seek a position in which they may violate personal ethics in the performance of their duties lose their right to freedom of association. They make a conscious decision to associate themselves with the money of all citizens in their jurisdiction, so they should be expected to carry out their duties without discrimination. If they can’t do it, they should resign.
The Tennessee legislature should not pass laws that imply sanctioning discrimination, particularly when the issue has already been resolved by the courts. Although the new law does not explicitly mention homosexuality as a reason for rejection (the legislation is intentionally ambiguous), it does not take a genius to deduce what the purpose of such vague legislation is. Tennessee has legally allowed gay marriage since the Obergefell decision; However, this decision invalidated the application of an existing ban on same-sex marriage that was imposed in 1996.
One might be excused for assuming that perhaps some members of our state legislature are nostalgic for the days when same-sex couples could be denied a license without consequences. Especially when they pass intentionally vaguely written laws, with a wink and a nod to officials who are reluctant to solemnize marriages that are objectionable to their religious beliefs. It appears that such officials can now refuse to do so with the sanction of state law (Defense of Marriage Act).
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Despite what some Nashville politicians may believe on the matter, the facts are clear: a majority of Americans in 2024 are indifferent to or in favor of same-sex marriage, including a significant majority of Tennesseans .
What is the purpose of this law if not to bring up a dead issue, fostering further division and discontent in a State that is sinking into an increasingly fractured and polarized political environment?
I maintain that this law opposes the vital constitutional principle of equal protection. It is fundamentally backward from both a moral and legal perspective, and I believe it should be overturned in court.
Ezra Wyrick is a Tennessee writer and consultant focusing on legislative accountability at the state level. He is also a contributing writer for Young Voices.
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