Constitutional Law
Atheist Threatens Suit Over Las Vegas Wedding-Clergy Rule
Posted Dec 15, 2008, 04:27 pm CST
By Martha Neil
Outraged to discover that Las Vegas only licenses officiants with religious affiliations, a self-avowed atheist is threatening to sue if Nevada state legislators won't change the law to allow him to officiate.
Michael Jacobson, 64, refused to say that he was anything other than an atheist, and he hence was automatically rejected for a license to perform marriages, reports the Los Angeles Times. He is supported in his quest for a nonclerical role in the famous gaming city's marriages by two national secular groups.
"Many atheists and agnostics have . . . deeply held beliefs," says Bob Ritter, an attorney for one of them, the American Humanist Association, in a letter to the county clerk's office. ""Are not their beliefs entitled to the same respect?"
Most states have laws like Nevada's concerning required qualifications to officiate at weddings, the newspaper says.
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