Suit Challenges Indiana's Limit On Who May Solemnize Marriages

The Center for Inquiry is an organization devoted to fostering a secular society based on science, reason, freedom of inquiry and humanist values. Yesterday it filed a federal lawsuit seeking to require the state of Indiana to permit those who have completed the Center's Secular Celebrant Program to solemnize marriages in Indiana. The complaint (full text) in Center for Inquiry, Inc. v. Clerk, Marion Circuit Court, (SD IN, filed  5/9/2012), claims that IN Code Sec. 31-11-6-1 that limits solemnization of marriages to clergy, various religious groups, and public officials, violates the Establishment Clause and the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause. Center for Inquiry issued a press release yesterday announcing the filing of the lawsuit.