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‘Great Precaution Not To Offend A Minister’: Couple Denied Marriage Explains Why They Chose A Judge

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A same-sex couple who came up against a judge cited his religious beliefs as the reason he would not marry them explains why they chose a civil ceremony in the first place.

Weeks after the Supreme Court ruled states cannot ban same-sex couples from marrying, there are still many couples who are being denied their right to wed across the nation, all thanks to taxpayer paid employees of the state who are using religion to refuse to perform their jobs.

Take Carolyn Wilson.

She and her partner did their homework, looked up the hours and regulations of their Toledo, Ohio courthouse, paid the $15 fee and were told on Monday that the judge does not perform “these types of marriages.”

Toledo, Ohio Municipal Court Judge C. Allen McConnell issued a statement explaining why he declined to do his job.

“The declination was based upon my personal and Christian beliefs established over many years,” Judge McConnell said in a statement. “The court has implemented a process whereby same sex marriages will be accommodated. I will continue to perform traditional marriages during my duties assignment.”

But what are same-sex couples supposed to do, especially those who live in states, like Ohio, where many are less than supportive of marriage equality?

EARLIER: Gay Couples Across The Nation Still Denied Right To Marry Due To Public Employees’ Religious Beliefs

WTOL reports “Wilson says they specifically sought a public official to perform the marriage instead of a religious officiate.”

Carolyn Wilson and her partner thought they were doing the right thing, the moral thing, the thoughtful thing, the kind thing, perhaps even the understanding, supportive, tolerant, and even neighborly thing.

“We took great precaution not to offend a minister — that’s why we went to a judge to get married, never dreaming that he couldn’t follow the law,” Wilson told WTOL. “That he wouldn’t follow the law.”

“To go through that experience when it’s not pleasant and singles you out at a time in your life when you’re celebrating the fact that you have the same right as everyone else, it’s just not good. I don’t want anyone else to go through it,” she added.

No one else should have to go through it, at least not in Ohio.

The oath of office for judges in Ohio is quite clear, according to Ohio law.

“The oath of office of each judge of a court of record shall be to support the constitution of the United States and the constitution of this state, to administer justice without respect to persons, and faithfully and impartially to discharge and perform all the duties incumbent on the person as such judge, according to the best of the person’s ability and understanding,” Ohio revised code 3.23 reads. “The oath of office of every other officer, deputy, or clerk shall be to support the constitution of the United States and the constitution of this state, and faithfully to discharge the duties of the office.”

Fortunately, Wilson was able to get married, by another judge that day who understood his duty and performed it.

But of course, the religious right will never be satisfied. Most same-sex couples who want to marry aren’t asking clergy members they don’t know to marry them, to avoid awkward situations and out of respect for their religious beliefs.

But taxpayer employees of the state have, as written above, a legal duty and sworn oath to do their jobs, “faithfully and impartially.”

How much more are same-sex couples supposed to do to appease anti-gay activists and “Christians”? 

What more does the religious right want?

 

EARLIER:

‘Based Upon My Personal And Christian Beliefs’: Ohio Judge Refuses To Marry Same-Sex Couple

Video Of Kentucky Clerk Denying Same-Sex Couple Marriage License After Cops Called Goes Viral

Rebellious Kentucky Clerk Wants Couples To Buy Marriage Licenses Online

 

Image: Screenshot via 13 WABC
Hat tip: The Advocate

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News

Chief Justice Smacks Down Trump

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3 hours ago

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March 18, 2025

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U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has issued a rare, and terse, 31-word statement, seemingly in response to President Donald Trump’s rant calling call for the impeachment of Senior U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who on Saturday ordered two deportation flights to be turned around under a contested law.

The Trump administration, declaring the planes were over international waters, decided the judge’s order was not lawful, and did not order the planes to return home.

Trump lashed out Tuesday, at 9:05 AM, in an unhinged rant, calling Judge Boasberg a “Radical Left Lunatic,” “a troublemaker and agitator,” who “was not elected President” — before calling for his impeachment.

Chief Justice Roberts, who was appointed by President George W. Bush almost 20 years ago, issued a stern rebuke.

READ MORE: Trump Border Czar ‘Doesn’t Care’ About Judges — One Might Make Administration Think Twice

“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose,” Roberts said in his statement, as first reported by Politico’s Kyle Cheney.

Politico is calling it “the most intense public conflict between Trump and Roberts since 2018, when the chief justice came to the defense of federal judges who’d ruled against Trump policies.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Cheney had reported that the “invective from Trump against Boasberg also is set against the message from Chief Justice Roberts, who warned against efforts by public officials to intimidate judges — including by the threat of impeachment — which could provoke ‘dangerous reactions.'”

Those remarks came from Roberts’ year-end report, during which he lamented, “Public officials certainly have a right to criticize the work of the judiciary, but they should be mindful that intemperance in their statements when it comes to judges may prompt dangerous reactions by others,” as USA Today reported at the time.

“Unfortunately,” the Chief Justice had also said, “not all actors engage in `informed criticism’ or anything remotely resembling it.”

READ MORE: ‘Welcome to Autocracy’: Trump Declaring Biden’s Pardons ‘Void’ Debunked and Denounced

At Trump’s State of the Union earlier this month, political observers were stunned by Trump’s remarks, caught on a hot mic, when he thanked Roberts.

Watch below or at this link:

Image via Reuters 

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News

Trump Pushes to Impeach ‘Radical Left Lunatic’ Judge in Unhinged Morning Rant

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4 hours ago

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March 18, 2025

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In a further escalation of his administration’s targeting of the federal judiciary, President Donald Trump posted an unhinged rant Tuesday morning, calling for the impeachment of a U.S. District Court judge—likely James Boasberg—whose orders his legal team had allegedly defied.

Trump did not name him, but Senior U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg had ordered the President’s legal team on Saturday to turn around two planes carrying hundreds of immigrants in the process of being deported under an obscure 1798 wartime-only law.

Politico‘s Kyle Cheney reports that “Trump’s call to impeach Chief Judge Boasberg for a ruling he disagrees with is an escalation of his administration’s increasingly ominous battle with the judiciary.”

The administration’s decision not to follow Judge Boasberg’s order — which Trump officials claim was not valid and therefore, they say, did not constitute defiance — may be leading the country toward a constitutional crisis, according to legal experts.

At 9:05 AM Tuesday, President Trump unleashed his unhinged rant, further stoking the flames of a constitutional crisis.

READ MORE: Trump Border Czar ‘Doesn’t Care’ About Judges — One Might Make Administration Think Twice

“This Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator who was sadly appointed by Barack Hussein Obama, was not elected President – He didn’t WIN the popular VOTE (by a lot!), he didn’t WIN ALL SEVEN SWING STATES, he did WIN 2,750 to 525 Counties, HE DIDN’T WIN ANYTHING!” Trump wrote on Truth Social, the social media platform he owns, appearing to include a typo.

“I WON FOR MANY REASONS, IN AN OVERWHELMING MANDATE, BUT FIGHTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION MAY HAVE BEEN THE NUMBER ONE REASON FOR THIS HISTORIC VICTORY,” the President insisted.

Trump continues to claim a “mandate,” but his popular vote win margin ranks about 50th out of 60 presidential elections, and, according to The New York Times, “Trump’s Electoral College Victory Ranks 46th in 58 Elections.”

Trump went on to claim, “I’m just doing what the VOTERS wanted me to do.”

“This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!! WE DON’T WANT VICIOUS, VIOLENT, AND DEMENTED CRIMINALS, MANY OF THEM DERANGED MURDERERS, IN OUR COUNTRY. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”

The New York Times reported on Sunday that legal experts had been trying to determine “how close the Trump administration is to open defiance of the Constitution’s system of checks and balances.”

“Trump administration moved one large step closer to a constitutional showdown with the judicial branch of government when airplane-loads of Venezuelan detainees deplaned in El Salvador even though a federal judge had ordered that the planes reverse course and return the detainees to the United States,” the Times reported.

Two days later, cable news networks like MSNBC are currently describing this as a “legal showdown.”

READ MORE: ‘Welcome to Autocracy’: Trump Declaring Biden’s Pardons ‘Void’ Debunked and Denounced

On Monday night, U.S. Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) told CNN’s Anderson Cooper (video below) that he believes America is on the brink of a constitutional crisis.

“You know, we’ve been, as you pointed out, throwing that term around pretty sloppily in the last two months or so,” Congressman Himes said, “but the definition of a constitutional crisis, of course, is when you have no way to resolve two branches of government warring with each other. And you know what you see exactly what’s happening here. It’s a very interesting moment because, this is what Donald Trump does in life, right?”

“And you see him exploring the threshold of ignoring a court order, knowing because he said so before and because his people know this, that that is very serious business, that that is a constitutional crisis.”

“So they’re throwing every mad legal theory up against the wall, they’re dissembling, they’re taking their time and everything and I’ll tell you, we’ve seen this movie a hundred times before.”

After the President posted his Truth Social rant, The New York Times’ Peter Baker wrote: “Trump declares that it constitutes a high crime and misdemeanor worthy of impeachment for a federal judge to rule against him.”

Watch the video below or at this link:

READ MORE: ‘Sounds Like Putin’: Trump Blasted for Declaring Top News Organizations ‘Illegal’

 

Image via Reuters

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News

Trump Border Czar ‘Doesn’t Care’ About Judges — One Might Make Administration Think Twice

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24 hours ago

on

March 17, 2025

By

President Donald Trump’s “border czar,” Tom Homan, on Monday dismissed concerns about federal judges and defended the administration’s mass deportations despite a court order to halt them—but one judge appears ready to force the administration to reconsider.

The New York Times reports that Homan’s “defiant remarks” indicated “that the administration planned to continue such deportations despite the court’s order — an action that could thrust the country into a constitutional crisis, pitting one of the coequal branches of the government against another.”

Chief Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Saturday blocked the Trump administration’s mass deportations to El Salvador and Honduras of hundreds of alleged gang members, under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, which was to be used only during times of “declared” war.

After Judge Boasberg issued a verbal order “temporarily blocking the deportations,” the Associated Press reported, “lawyers told him there were already two planes with immigrants in the air — one headed for El Salvador, the other for Honduras. Boasberg verbally ordered the planes be turned around, but they apparently were not.”

READ MORE: ‘Welcome to Autocracy’: Trump Declaring Biden’s Pardons ‘Void’ Debunked and Denounced

Axios, citing two senior officials, reported that the “Trump administration says it ignored a Saturday court order to turn around two planeloads of alleged Venezuelan gang members because the flights were over international waters and therefore the ruling didn’t apply.”

On Monday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters the judge’s order had “no lawful basis” because the plane was not in U.S. airspace.

The administration claimed the verbal order to turn the planes around was not included in Judge Boasberg’s written order that followed. Some are accusing the administration of intentionally ignoring a legal order from a federal judge.

Monday morning on “Fox and Friends,” border czar Homan defended the deportations, and declared: “We made a promise to American people the President Trump has made a promise to American people, we’re gonna make this country safe again.”

“I wake up every morning loving my job because I work for the greatest president in the history of my life and we’re gonna make this country safe again,” Homan told co-host Lawrence Jones.

READ MORE: ‘Sounds Like Putin’: Trump Blasted for Declaring Top News Organizations ‘Illegal’

“I’m proud to be a part of this administration. We’re not stopping,” he declared.

“I don’t care what the judges think, I don’t care what the left thinks. We’re coming,” Homan warned.

Jones declared his support for Homan’s actions, telling the former Trump acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), “I just love seeing you going through these protesters, just crunching on the apple as their liberal tears just flood the hallway.”

Meanwhile, Judge Boasberg ordered attorneys for the Trump administration back into court, for a Monday afternoon hearing, and gave them questions they must answer, according to MSNBC legal contributor Adam Klasfeld.

“1) whether any flight with individuals subject to the Proclamation took off after either the
Court’s written or oral Orders were issued;
2) whether any flight with individuals subject to the Proclamation landed after either the
Court’s written or oral Orders were issued;
3) whether any flight with individuals subject to the Proclamation was still in the air after
either the Court’s written or oral Orders were issued; and
4) whether custody of any individuals subject to the Proclamation was transferred to a
foreign country after either the Court’s written or oral Orders were issued.”

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) pointing to a report stating that Trump is using “the Alien Enemies Act for the first time since World War II, granting himself sweeping powers,” wrote: “Trump is defying court orders and abusing wartime powers to deport people with no due process. He’s using the law that put Italian, German, and Japanese immigrants in detention camps during World War II. We are not at war. Donald Trump is not a king. He is not above the law.”

CNN’s Elie Honig and Dana Bash discussed the issue Monday afternoon. Honig said in theory the Trump administration’s decision to not order the planes to return could lead to impeachment, but “we live in reality, that’s not going to happen.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: White House Caught Admitting Real Reason for Mass Firings: Experts

 

Image via Reuters

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