Oregon Judge Refuses To Do Gay Weddings

KGW.com:

A Marion County judge has refused to perform same-sex marriages and has asked his clerks to refer couples seeking same-sex marriages to other county judges.

Judge Vance Day, a circuit court judge and former chairman of the Oregon Republican Party, is now facing an ethics investigation over that decision, according to the judge’s spokesman.

Spokesman Patrick Korten said Day instructed his staff to tell couples that the judge will not perform same-sex marriages. The staffers were instructed to refer same-sex couples to other Marion County judges willing to issue them a marriage license.

Korten said Day took the action based on his “deeply-held religious beliefs.”

“It’s an exercise of his religious freedom rights under the First Amendment,” Korten said.

Day hasn’t performed any same-sex marriages since he joined the bench in 2011, but only stopped doing marriages of any kind this past spring. Judges in Marion County are not required to perform marriages, and Marion County’s website lists five active judges and one retired judge who are available for marriage ceremonies.

That decision led to an ethics investigation by the Oregon Commission on Judicial Fitness, Korten said.

RELATED:  Unlike Memories Pizza, Kim Davis May Not Be Eligible for GoFundMe Page