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<blockquote data-quote="Hobbes" data-source="post: 2787044" data-attributes="member: 3371">Here&#039;s how it should typically work: If a same-sex couple shows up at a county clerk&#039;s office to get married, an individual official can refuse to grant them a license. But the official would have to hand the case over to another county staffer, who would then give the license to the couple. The issue is that individual government employees may refuse based on genuine religious objections to marry same-sex couples, but the county government as a whole has a compelling interest to accommodate the couple and avoid violating their constitutional right to marry.&quot;The conscientious objector clerk and the clerk who is willing to issue the license need to just trade places,&quot; Douglas Laycock, an expert on religious freedom laws at the University of Virginia School of Law, wrote in an email in July. &quot;I don&#039;t think the county could require the same-sex couple to go stand in a different line, or come back on a different day.&quot;<a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/9/1/9239011/kim-davis-gay-marriage" target="_blank">http://www.vox.com/2015/9/1/9239011/kim-davis-gay-marriage</a></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Hobbes, post: 2787044, member: 3371"] Here's how it should typically work: If a same-sex couple shows up at a county clerk's office to get married, an individual official can refuse to grant them a license. But the official would have to hand the case over to another county staffer, who would then give the license to the couple. The issue is that individual government employees may refuse based on genuine religious objections to marry same-sex couples, but the county government as a whole has a compelling interest to accommodate the couple and avoid violating their constitutional right to marry. "The conscientious objector clerk and the clerk who is willing to issue the license need to just trade places," Douglas Laycock, an expert on religious freedom laws at the University of Virginia School of Law, wrote in an email in July. "I don't think the county could require the same-sex couple to go stand in a different line, or come back on a different day." [url]http://www.vox.com/2015/9/1/9239011/kim-davis-gay-marriage[/url] [/QUOTE]

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