Steve, Do you know what the criminal charge is? I could certainly envision the state refusing to recognize the marriages performed by the ministers or, perhaps, the state revoking the ministers licensure, but what is the criminal law which they have broken?
Gene Summerlin Ogborn Summerlin & Ogborn P.C. 210 Windsor Place 330 So. 10th St. Lincoln, NE 68508 (402) 434-8040 (402) 434-8044 (FAX) (402) 730-5344 (Mobile) www.osolaw.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- From: Steven Jamar [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2004 11:11 AM To: Religion & Law List Subject: UU ministers arrested Two Unitarian Universalist Ministers were arrested in NY for performing same-sex marriages under the power granted them by the state, not just as religious unions. Of course the typical faultlines are exposed - including claims of violation of separation of church and state. But surely that cannot be true - this is a simple case of a prosecutor interpreting the State and Federal Constitutions to permit this sort of gender discrimination in marriage - and so enforcing the law as he interprets it. What always strikes me as curious in these are the cries of "upholding the law" - as if the constitutions were not law, and indeed superior law at that. Anyway does anyone see an establishment problem with these prosecutions that I am missing? washington post article is at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61436-2004Mar15.html Steve -- Prof. Steven D. Jamar vox: 202-806-8017 Howard University School of Law fax: 202-806-8567 2900 Van Ness Street NW mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Washington, DC 20008 http://www.law.howard.edu/faculty/pages/jamar/ A word is dead When it is said, Some say. I say it just Begins to live That day. Emily Dickinson 1872 _______________________________________________ To post, send message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw
