For Immediate Release: November 6, 2018

Contact: Paul Fidalgo, Communications Director

press@centerforinquiry.org - (207) 358-9785

In a lawsuit filed Monday with a U.S. District Court, the Center for Inquiry (CFI) is challenging Texas’s marriage law, which limits the authority to solemnize marriages to clergy and certain government officials. By granting this unconstitutional privilege to religion, the state is denying its nonreligious residents the opportunity to have their unions formalized by a secular celebrant who shares their worldview and values.

CFI, an organization that advances reason, science, and humanist values, asserts that current Texas Family Code section 2.202 violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment as well as the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by bestowing exclusive authority to solemnize marriages to religious ministers, while denying that authority to Secular Celebrants.

“A religious couple can have their weddings officiated and solemnized by a representative of their faith, someone who shares their beliefs and values, as well they should,” said Nicholas Little, CFI’s Vice President and Legal Counsel. “Why deny this same basic right to the religiously unaffiliated, who make up almost one fifth of Texas’ population?”

The Center for Inquiry won a landmark victory in federal court in 2014 when challenging a similar law in Indiana, followed by another win in Illinois in 2017. CFI also laid the groundwork for Secular Celebrant legislation enacted in Oregon last year, and is working with lawmakers in Ohio on a similar bill. Earlier this year, CFI filed suit in federal court in Michigan challenging similar marriage laws there.

“It’s not enough to tell secular couples to settle for officiation by a judge that’s been assigned to them, or by someone who has been ‘ordained’ by some mail-order church,” said Little. “As Judge Easterbrook wisely pointed out in his historic decision on Indiana’s marriage law, those with a secular lifestance must not feel compelled to playact religious belief in order to have a meaningful marriage ceremony.”

When Judge Frank Easterbrook of the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled in favor of CFI’s Secular Celebrants, explaining that secular couples are unwilling to “pretend to believe something they do not,” adding, “They are shut out as long as they are sincere in following an ethical system that does not worship any god, adopt any theology, or accept a religious label.”

Steve Bratteng, Director of CFI-Austin and a plaintiff in the lawsuit said, “It’s time for secular Texans to be able to pick a wedding officiant who represents their beliefs and life stance. It would be unconscionable for the state to deny this opportunity to Jewish people, or Muslims; non-believers and the religiously unaffiliated deserve the same opportunities. Eric McCutchan and myself are looking forward to the opportunity of helping those people have the best wedding day possible.”

“Secular Celebrants are very important for people who do not want a religious wedding or a preacher delivering a ‘fire and brimstone’ sermon at their funeral,” said Reba Boyd Wooden, director of CFI’s Secular Celebrant program, which has been training and certifying Secular Celebrants since 2009. “We have been able to help many people have a secular wedding customized to their liking and a memorial service that respects the person and their right to not be religious.”

The suit is being filed against the County Clerk of Dallas County in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Plaintiffs will be represented pro bono by Erin Brewer, Scott Barnard and Burke McDavid of the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. “We are extremely grateful for the assistance from Akin Gump in this matter,” added Little.