Vance Day’s interpretation of the First Amendment has triggered an ethics investigation.
BY JACOB PALMER | DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
A Marion County Circuit judge says he will not perform same-sex marriages.
Vance Day’s interpretation of the First Amendment has triggered an ethics investigation.
Patrick Korten, a spokesman for Day who is based in Virginia, said the judge has never performed a same-sex marriage since joining the bench in 2011. He stopped performing marriages of any kind this spring and informed his staff that when same-sex marriage became legal in Oregon to refer couples seeking all marriages to other county judges.
Korten said Day stopped performing marriages prior to the United States Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage in June.
(SOURCE: Statesman Journal)
Day has said his decision stems from “deeply-held religious beliefs.”
The Oregon Government Ethics Commission voted unanimously Thursday to approve Day’s request to establish a legal defense fund. Day noted in an affidavit signed Aug. 19 that he was seeking to establish the fund to defray legal expenses in connection with inquiries by the Oregon Commission on Judicial Fitness and Disability involving allegations of violations of the Oregon Code of Judicial Conduct and the Oregon Constitution.
“These legal expenses arose by virtue of, and were related to, my service as an Oregon Circuit Judge,” Day wrote in the affidavit.
(SOURCE: OregonLive.com)
