Two local ministers ordained by a Seattle-based church that “champions religious freedom, social justice and diverse forms of spiritual expression” have filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against the elected court clerks in Augusta County and Staunton.
The suit, filed on behalf of Rev. Michael E. Davis and Rev. Jaylen N. Shorts, who are ministers with Universal Life Church Monastery, was filed after Steve Landes, the clerk of court in Augusta County, and Staci Falls, the clerk of court in the City of Staunton, “categorically refused” to recognize the ministers under either of the statutes authorizing ministers of a religious society to perform marriages in Virginia.
“Although these officials authorize ordained ministers of other religious orders to solemnize marriages, they – like the majority of Circuit Court Clerks in the Commonwealth of Virginia – choose to deny ULC Monastery and its ministers that benefit without constitutional justification,” the suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia in Harrisonburg on Thursday, alleges.
Universal Life Church Monastery ministers are recognized to officiate marriages in 48 states, with only Pennsylvania and Virginia not fully giving legal sanction to what you would think is an inviolable constitutional right – local court clerks in those two states have discretion under their state laws to make those decisions on a case-by-case basis.
If this comes across to you as a straightforward constitutional violation, then you’re where I am with this.
Court clerks, in Virginia, as mentioned above, are elected – in the case of both Landes and Falls, both were elected to eight-year terms in the 2019 state election cycle.
Landes, a former member of the Virginia House of Delegates, was the Republican nominee in Augusta County; Falls, a former deputy clerk in the Staunton clerk office, as an independent.
It’s worth noting here that Falls, a 2002 JMU alum, has a master’s degree from Liberty University, the evangelical conservative bastion, and a 2019 profile of her published in the News Leader reported that she had been accepted into the Liberty University School of Law in 2015, but decided against going to law school to prepare herself to campaign for the open court clerk job.
So, you have a MAGA Republican and an evangelical here making the call to deny the right to officiate marriages to two ordained ministers from a church whose “ecclesiastical beliefs rest on the conviction that all people are children of the same universe,” per the language in the federal suit, which specifically states, in the case of Falls, that she was “particularly drawn to the Church’s affirmation of spiritual autonomy and its open embrace of LGBTQ individuals and others who do not identify with traditional faiths.”
The lawsuit includes as a key detail that “(s)ince she became ordained, Rev. Shorts has been approached by multiple members of her community asking whether she could officiate their weddings,” and that “(s)ome of those seeking her services belong to the City of Staunton’s closely knit LGBTQ community and have struggled to find officiants who will marry them without judgment or discrimination.”
“Rev. Shorts remains committed to serving as a minister in her community,” the suit tells us. “She views solemnizing marriages as a central component of her religious vocation and hopes to become a go-to officiant for inclusive, affirming, LGBTQ-friendly ceremonies in Augusta County and perhaps even the Shenandoah Valley region. But Defendant Landes’s discriminatory enforcement of Virginia’s marriage laws has deterred Rev. Shorts from exercising her faith freely and fully.”
Davis, according to the suit, is a former Baptist church deacon who “considers it part of his calling to officiate weddings, baptisms, funerals, and to preach ‘the Word.’ He does not see these acts as civic duties, but as expressions of his faith.”
“Rev. Davis considers ministry the next phase of his life’s purpose, and looks forward to transitioning into full-time ministry after he retires,” the suit tells us.
According to the suit, Davis and Shorts filed paperwork last year to officiate marriage ceremonies, and were denied by both of the local court clerks, who, per the suit, informed Davis and Shorts that they would need to register as ordinary civil celebrants, which includes paying a $500 fee, to be able to officiate the ceremonies.
“This policy and practice,” the suit alleges, “prevents ULC Monastery ministers from exercising the same legal rights afforded to clergy of other state-favored denominations,” “exposes Church ministers to criminal prosecution,” and “stigmatizes the Church and its ministers – branding them and their religious practices illegitimate in the eyes of the government.”
More from the suit:
“Denying ULC Monastery ministers the same recognition and authority granted to ministers of other religious traditions violates the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment, and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. It also violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment by imposing an unconstitutional condition that burdens the ULC Monastery and its ministers’ speech based on its content and viewpoint.”
“No rational, much less compelling, government interest justifies denying ULC Monastery or its ordained and regular ministers the same recognition afforded to other religious societies and their ministers, and neither the Clerk Defendants’ discriminatory enforcement (of the state code), nor the Prosecuting Defendants’ unrenounced obligation to enforce (the code), is narrowly tailored to serve any legitimate government interest.”
I reached out to both Landes and Falls for comment on the suit, and both declined the opportunity.
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Chris Graham
