Wyoming’s Constitution likewise is designed to “secure ...our civil, political and religious liberties” (Preamble). So it declares: “The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship without discrimination or preference shall be forever guaranteed in this state, and no person shall be rendered incompetent to hold any office of trust or profit, or to serve as a witness or juror, because of his opinion on any matter of religious belief whatever.”
These protections were created for people like Ruth Neely.
Consider the time she learned that one of two parole violators was totally illiterate. Filled with compassion and creativity, she gave the young partners in crime an opportunity to shorten their jail time by the one teaching the other to read. In a short time, one young man was given a gift that the system had failed to give. A life was changed in Neely’s courtroom.
But now Wyoming’s Commission on Judicial Conduct and Ethics (CJCE) wants her fired. Her crime? She honestly answered a reporter who asked if she was “excited” to perform same sex marriages. Like most Americans, she has always believed that marriage is about one man and one woman. She believes that children thrive best when they are raised by the two people who conceived them.
Not long ago, “tolerance” was on bumper stickers everywhere. Today, it is in short supply. Social media is filled with trolls who spew blasphemies and hateful speech to silence and intimidate anyone who dares to advocate basic morality. But today in Wyoming, we are seeing a whole new ball game. Now it is not just an anonymous troll but an entire government commission trying to drive certain religions out of public life. No matter whether you’re religious or not Ruth Neely’s story is chilling.When Ned Donovan asked a loaded question to Ruth Neely, he knew full well of her Christian beliefs on marriage. That was not news to anyone in Pinedale. But he used the power of the press to place her in an impossible situation. He promised to spike the “story” if she would promise to act against her conscience. When she did not, the story became the excuse for an investigation and a prosecution of Judge Neely lasting over a year.
Still to this day, nobody has filed a complaint against her. Nevertheless, in a hearing last December, Pat Dixon, the lawyer for the CJCE, said of her commonsense Christian beliefs, “Personally, I find the position of the Missouri Synod of the Lutheran Church, which is the opposite of the other synods of the Lutheran Church -- I find that every bit as repugnant as I found the Mormon Church's position on black people” (CJCE Hearing, 12-4-15). Then, his closing remarks at their most recent hearing were, “I submit to you that somebody with that attitude really should not be on the bench” (CJCE Hearing, 2-19-16).
These are breathtaking statements. As an officer of the state of Wyoming, not only is he insulting two widely different faiths in a single breath, he is also willing to punish one synod of Lutheranism while praising “the opposite synods.” As a pastor of the Missouri Synod, what should I conclude about his own open bias? This is what the Establishment Clause was meant to prevent!
But, of course, this really isn’t about a single denomination. It’s not even about Christianity in general. Rather, the state of Wyoming is favoring a new religious belief about humanity while rejecting the unanimous belief of ALL major religions held in unison for millennia.
Equally chilling is that fact that the Commission wants to disqualify Judge Neely from being the city judge of Pinedale even though she has no marriage authority in that position. The CJCE unreasonably claims that her life-long beliefs suddenly make her incapable of fairly applying traffic laws and jay-walking ordinances.
But what about her marriage authority as circuit magistrate? Doesn’t her admission that she can’t perform same-sex ceremonies disqualify her? This sounds like a solid argument until you actually read Wyoming Statute 20-1-106, “Who may solemnize marriage?”
It says, “Every district or circuit court judge, district court commissioner, supreme court justice, magistrate and every licensed or ordained minister of the gospel, bishop, priest or rabbi, or other qualified person acting in accordance with the traditions or rites for the solemnization of marriage of any religion, denomination or religious society, may perform the ceremony of marriage in this state.”
That’s it. That’s the only applicable law here.
This law authorizes hundreds, if not thousands of people across the state to solemnize marriages. And if that’s weren’t enough, it even allows for practically anybody else to be given authorization for a special occasion.
The law is deliberately so broad that nobody is forced to be married by anyone they don’t want to ask, and nobody is forced to perform any marriage they are not “excited” to perform.
Twice, our lawmakers used the word, “may,” not “must.” Our elected representatives wisely wrote a law that allows anyone to get married without infringing on the free speech of anyone authorized to do it. The reason is clear. Wyoming wants to avoid forcing any ministers, bishops, priests or rabbis to act against their religious convictions. And they wanted judges and magistrates to have the same protections.
Marriage is a religious matter, as even Mr. Kerry Drake admitted (Drake’s Take, 5-13-16). He thinks it’s Ruth Neely’s obligation to “sanctify any same-sex marriage.”
These are religious words with specific content. It is not just that Drake and the Commission want same sex couples to be married—that would be easy. They also want all people, regardless of religion, to make or declare such marriages “holy.” This is consistent with what the CJCE said in the Feb. 19 hearing. They claimed the Commission is “fighting a holy war” on behalf of Wyoming’s taxpayers.
Mrs. Neely, and millions of Christians with her, decline to call something holy just because the state establishes it as the new religion. Now the CJCE thinks it is doing God a service to use your tax dollars to persecute her. If the Wyoming Supreme Court agrees with the commission’s recommendation, it would communicate to the public that some professions are off limits for people who hold certain religious beliefs—a profoundly demeaning message to people of faith who share those convictions.
If Judge Neely’s rights are not secured today, our Constitutional protections have become meaningless and no one’s liberty will long endure. The Supreme Court of Wyoming will soon have the opportunity to reject the commission’s prosecution of Judge Neely and reaffirm that, in this country, speaking about one’s religious beliefs does not disqualify a person from holding public office.
