In light of the recent “Freedom of Religion” laws being passed I have strongly advocated for the fact that we, as free and sovereign individuals, are free to associate, or not, with whomever we want. And for how ever long we want.
In fact I have largely gone further than these laws and have claimed that we don’t have to invoke some ‘Freedom of Religion’ nonsense, we simply should be allowed to decide with whom we do business.
Where this ends is at [least] two places:
1. When you are a government
2. When you are an employee of a firm that extends association
First the second – consider a grocery store selling reasonable and common products hires you to check customers out in line. You, as an employee, are not at liberty to both KEEP your job and refuse to service pork.
Second the first – As a government, you are not free to restrict access to public goods based on your discretion.
Senate leader Phil Berger filed a bill Wednesday morning that would allow magistrates to opt-out of same-sex weddings and allow assistant and deputy registers of deeds to not issue licenses based on “sincerely held religious objections.”
“I had, in my county, a situation where a magistrate felt like he had to resign in order to honor his religious beliefs,” Berger said, defending the bill. “A lot of folks, including myself, feel that shouldn’t be the case and that extending the rights of some should not infringe on the long held beliefs of others.”
The good Mr. Berger is wrong here; the magistrate is free to withdraw from performing this service, but he then disqualifies from holding office or his job.
