RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – Three couples want an appeals court to revive their challenge to a North Carolina law allowing magistrates with religious objections to refuse to perform same-sex marriages.
The appeal filed Nov. 21 with the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond says a lower court erred by dismissing the challenge in September.
A judge ruled then that two gay couples and an interracial couple lacked standing to sue and lacked evidence they were harmed by the law that took effect in 2015.
Only a fraction of North Carolina’s magistrates have filed recusal notices. The notices prevent them from officiating at all marriages – same-sex and heterosexual – for at least six months.
The law also allows some court clerks to decline to issue marriage licenses because of “any sincerely held religious objection.”
