Represented by the ACLU, a Pennsylvania couple has filed a religious discrimination suit against the Allegheny County Register of Wills who refused to issue them a marriage license that would allow them to marry without a third party officiating. Yesterday's Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and today's Wilkes Barre Times Leader report the couple was told that only members of the Quaker and Baha'i faiths-- traditional religions that have no clergy-- are permitted to self-officiate. Pennsylvania law (23 Pa. Consol. Laws Sec. 1503(b)) provides that a marriage ceremony can be conducted by members of a religion without clergy "according to the rules and customs" of the religious group. Mary Jo Knelly and David Huggins-Daines, who want to have a ceremony similar to that of the Quakers, but secular in content, say this amounts to preferential treatment of one religion over another. However Register of Wills Solicitor Timothy E. Finnerty wrote them that under Pennsylvania law, "There is no provision for the individuals to officiate at their own marriage." (See prior related posting.)
UPDATE: On Thursday, federal judge Joy Flowers Conti granted a temporary restraining order, requiring Allegheny County to issue a marriage license to Knelly and Huggins-Daines. While the court did not make a final ruling on how Pennsylvania's law should be interpreted, Allegheny County said that in the future it would grant self-uniting marriage licenses without regard to religion. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Sept. 28).
