Same-sex marriage decision raises legal questions

The court’s ruling is raising legal and ethical questions and has El Paso’s County Attorney Jo Anne Bernal pitted against Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

“We seem to have a runaway Supreme Court,” said Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

About 16 years before the Supreme Court’s ruling, Texas has the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which prohibits the government from infringing on religion.

That’s the law Abbott is invoking in his directive to state agencies, ordering them to find a balance between the First Amendment and the Restoration Act, ensuring that nobody “takes any adverse action against people…motivated by sincere religious belief.”

But in an opinion sent out to judges before the court’s ruling, Bernal says “a judge who refuses to marry a same sex couple based on their religious or personal beliefs may face a complaint filed by party to the Texas State Commission on Judicial.”

“If the Supreme Court of the United States says that the law is that unions of same-sex couples are legal, then I am to perform marriages without biased or prejudice and that includes everyone,” said El Paso Judge Laura Strathmann.

Abbott disagrees, writing “no Texan is required by the Supreme Court’s decision to act contrary to his or her religious beliefs regarding marriage.”

Patrick is going to fight the decision. He said he is asking the attorney general for a legal opinion on whether county clerks, judges and justices of the peace can be forced to issue a marriage license or preside over a wedding if it is against their religious beliefs.

“If those powers are not defined in the constitution, those powers of the 10th amendment are given to the state, and it’s up to the people of the state to make that decision.”