A judge in Pennsylvania will decide if it’s ok for an elected official, in this case the Montgomery County Register of Wills, to essentially make up the law as he goes, The Intelligencer reports. To be fair, the Intelligencer doesn’t put it that way but that’s what’s going on here so I helped them out a bit.
A court hearing set for Wednesday will lead to a ruling on whether Montgomery County can continue issuing same-sex marriage licenses in spite of Pennsylvania’s gay marriage ban.
The Corbett administration has slammed Montgomery County Register of Wills D. Bruce Hanes as a local official flouting a state law, and the Pennsylvania Department of Health is seeking a writ of mandamus that would order him to stop.
The legal challenge is limited to whether Hanes is violating his duties by issuing the licenses. It won’t determine the legitimacy of the licenses Hanes has already distributed to 161 couples, including four who received theirs on Friday.
Hanes declared he would welcome same-sex couples seeking to be married on July 23. He said he wanted to come down on the “right side of history,” and made his decision after two key developments: the U.S. Supreme Court striking down the federal Defense of Marriage Act, and state Attorney General Kathleen Kane refusing to defend Pennsylvania against a federal lawsuit challenging the state’s gay marriage ban.
Like Kane, Hanes believes the law defining marriage between a man and a woman violates the state’s constitution, and therefore refuses to enforce it.
The crazy part is that Kane’s whole job as attorney general is to uphold the law but she ditched that, instead opting for popularity with the “evolving” left.
These guys can do what their conscience tells them to do, it doesn’t mean they have to still hold those jobs. It’s rather a funny thing. The same people who defend Hanes and Kane for following their consciences are the first to demand that a Christian photographer must take pictures at a gay wedding, even if it’s against their conscience. They say that if you want to run a business you can’t follow your conscience because your business is public. Even the Obama administration states this in their defense of the HHS Mandate. But when it comes to a job where the people are actually elected as public officials, the law becomes a matter of private conscience. Does this make sense to anyone? I mean, even to them?
No, of course not. The end justifies the means.
