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TRENTON
-- Attorney General Stuart Rabner today
issued written advice to the State Registrar
of Vital Statistics concluding that, once
a New Jersey law authorizing civil unions
takes effect on February 19, members of
the clergy may legally decline to perform
civil union ceremonies if doing so would
conflict with “sincerely held religious
beliefs.”
Writing to help ensure uniform statewide
practices, Rabner reiterated earlier advice
that no public official is compelled by
law to perform either marriages or civil
unions, but that those who choose to perform
marriage ceremonies must also be available
to perform civil unions or face possible
legal action for violating the New Jersey
Law Against Discrimination (LAD).
The Attorney General noted, however, that
the LAD does not apply to the administration
of religious rites by clergy members.
“As
a result, there is no statutory bar to a
member of the clergy declining to solemnize
civil unions in accordance with sincerely
held religious beliefs, even though that
religious figure regularly solemnizes marriages,”
the Attorney General wrote in a seven-page
opinion letter to Registrar of Vital Statistics
Joseph Komosinski.
According to Rabner, discriminatory treatment
of same-sex and mixed-gender couples by
mayors and other public officials would
“raise significant equal protection
concerns under the State Constitution.”
However, the Attorney General noted that
clergy members “should not be viewed
as public actors in these circumstances”
and that “a religious ceremony is
not necessary for the solemnization of either
a marriage or a civil union.”
The Attorney General thanked Assistant Attorney
General Patrick DeAlmeida for his work on
this matter.
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