Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, officials admitted Monday in a court hearing that their marriage ordinance would criminalize a wedding chapel's restriction of ceremonies to one man and one woman, and could subject the ministers to jail time.
But they promised they have no intention to exercise that authority against Donald and Evelyn Knapp.
The hearing was held in the Knapp's lawsuit against the city over the prospective rule, which they say would violate their constitutional rights to practice their religion.
The city is trying to have the lawsuit dismissed, and lawyers with the Alliance Defending Freedom were on hand to argue against the motion.
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There was no immediate decision by the court.
Kevin Theriot, counsel for the Knapps, who run the Hitching Post wedding chapel in Coeur d'Alene, said the city ordinance is in clear conflict with the First Amendment's free exercise of religion clause.
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The city's attorneys, he said, conceded that the city ordinance could be understood to subject the Knapps to prosecution and possible jail time.
But he said the issue is that criminal ordinances should not allow for any openness to interpretation.
The city publicly alleges its new "non-discrimination" ordinance requires the Knapps to perform "same-sex weddings."
The Knapps, however, say their First Amendment right should be protected.
ADF explains that such pre-enforcement challenges are common, since it wouldn't be acceptable to require someone to suffer the punishment of an unconstitutional law before being allowed to contest it.
The U.S. Supreme Court has noted, "One does not have to await the consummation of threatened injury to obtain preventive relief. If the injury is certainly impending, that is enough."
WND has reported the case is asking for the city to "honor the Knapps' fundamental freedoms and include a clear exemption covering for-profit businesses that are operated according to the owner's religious beliefs."
ADF said that the core problem remains that the Knapps could be subject to criminal fines and jail sentences if they fail to comply with the city's social agenda.
In cases of a New Mexico photographer, a Colorado baker and several others, courts have ruled service providers can be required to violate their faith. Those cases, however, carried fines and other penalties, not possible jail time, as does the Coeur d'Alene case.
After issuing the threat, the city later reconsidered and said that all the couple needed to do to be exempt from the law was organize as a nonprofit instead of a commercial business. Then the city attorney later determined forming a nonprofit wouldn't make any difference.
ADF said the solution is a clarification of the ordinance.
"They need to clarify who the law applies to and who it doesn't," said Jeremy Tedesco, a senior counsel for ADF, at an earlier hearing.
"You've got a criminal law that allows for jail time and fines. It cannot be vague. People can't be left guessing whether they will be subject to the ordinance, he said. "People don't give up their First Amendment rights just because they open a business."
In an interview last October, Idaho state Sen. Steve Vick said the case was so egregious he would eliminate the state government from marriage entirely.
"It's very disappointing to me that they would require a Christian business owner to do something that violates their religious convictions, which I believe are protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution," Vick said. "Most of the reaction that I incurred has been from disappointment to shock that [the city] would do that."
Listen to the WND/Radio America interview with Idaho state Sen. Steve Vick:
Vick warned that the next step "will be to say that churches themselves cannot discriminate" and will be forced "to marry same-sex couples and not be allowed to say anything."
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