Buncombe County to accept marriage licenses from same-sex couples
(based on register's personal feelings about "fairness"):
NC Buncombe County Official Accepts SAME SEX Marriage Applications Challenging State Law:
Buncombe Co. accepting marriage applications from same-sex couples:
North Carolina Values Coalition has reported that the NC State Attorney General has sided with gay marriage in defiance of law and joined in a federal lawsuit to overturn state marriage amendment to its constitution:
Amendment here:
"AN ACT TO AMEND THE CONSTITUTION TO PROVIDE THAT MARRIAGE BETWEEN ONE MAN AND ONE WOMAN IS THE ONLY DOMESTIC LEGAL
UNION THAT SHALL BE VALID OR RECOGNIZED IN THIS STATE. "
PRESS RELEASE:
"AG Roy Cooper Has Compromised His Impartiality"
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 15, 2013
Press Contact: Jessica Wood [jessica@majorityconnections.com]
Fitzgerald: Attorney General Roy Cooper Has Compromised His Impartiality
Raleigh, NC - Attorney General Roy Cooper has announced his support for same-sex “marriage”, calling into question his willingness to vigorously defend the state’s Marriage Amendment.
The Attorney General is representing the State of North Carolina and several other elected public officials in a federal lawsuit challenging the Constitutionality of North Carolina’s Marriage Amendment.
Tami Fitzgerald, Executive Director of the North Carolina Values Coalition, denounced Cooper’s actions:
“The Attorney General has compromised his impartiality and his ability to vigorously represent the State’s interest in defending its marriage and adoption laws. Elected public officials are not allowed to violate the will of the majority of voters in North Carolina just because they do not like the law, and our Attorney General should not be parading around the State undermining the very laws he is charged with defending. He owes his allegiance to the people of our State who passed our marriage laws by referendum, not to his own political ambitions.”
Following the Attorney General’s announcement of his support for same-sex “marriage,” the Register of Deeds in Buncombe County announced his intention a few hours later to accept applications from same-sex couples for marriage licenses.
Ms. Fitzgerald cautioned the Registers of Deeds that issuing a marriage license to a same-sex couple would violate the laws and Constitution of North Carolina that the Buncombe County Register of Deeds is sworn to support, maintain, and defend. “It is very clear that Registers of Deeds in North Carolina have no legal authority to either accept applications for nor issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples,” said Ms. Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald contacted the Buncombe County Register of Deeds by email to warn him that he could be prosecuted under NC Gen. Stat. § 161-27 with a Class 1 misdemeanor and removed from office if he accepted the applications for marriage licenses from same-sex couples.
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