CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — The Wyoming Supreme Court has decided to censure but not remove a Pinedale judge who says her religious beliefs prevent her from presiding over same-sex marriages.
The court split 3-2 on its decision Tuesday in the case of Judge Ruth Neely. The majority says Neely violated judicial conduct code, but her misconduct doesn't warrant removing her from the bench.
Removing Neely would "unnecessarily circumscribe protected expression," Justice Kate Fox wrote in the majority opinion. "Judge Neely shall either perform no marriage ceremonies or she shall perform marriage ceremonies regardless of the couple's sexual orientation," Fox wrote.
The dissenting judges argued that Neely didn't violate any judicial conduct code.
"Wyoming law does not require any judge or magistrate to perform any particular marriage, and couples seeking to be married have no right to insist on a particular official as the officiant of their wedding," Justice Keith Kautz wrote in the dissent.
Neely, who's not a lawyer, is a municipal judge in Pinedale and a part-time circuit court magistrate in Sublette County. Neely had argued that removing her would violate her constitutional rights.
Her case has similarities to legal action against a Kentucky clerk of court jailed briefly in 2015 after refusing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples.
The Wyoming Commission on Judicial Conduct and Ethics had recommended that Neely be removed from her positions for violating the state code of judicial conduct.
The ethics commission investigated Neely after she told a reporter in 2014 that she wouldn't preside over same-sex marriages. Her lawyers said no same-sex couples have asked her to perform their marriage. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that same-sex couples nationwide may marry.
The Kentucky case against clerk Kim Davis, a conservative Christian, sparked a national debate over the religious freedom of civil servants versus the civil rights of same-sex couples. Davis ultimately agreed to alter the licenses to remove her name and title.
