I support this lawsuit ~ there should be people legally authorized to perform "civil" vs "religious" marriage ceremonies ~ there are "live links" to more/corroborating information in the original ~ Sooz

Minnesota Atheists Sue For Right To Perform Marriages Just Like Ordained Ministers
by Ian Millhiser Posted on October 28, 2014 at 9:02 am

If you are religious, and you want to get married in Minnesota, the state will license the clergy of your faith to perform your ceremony. Minnesota law even contains special carve outs for individual faiths, such as Quakers, where weddings are not generally performed by ordained ministers. Yet, if a couple prefers a secular ceremony, their options are more limited. Couples who do not wish to be married by a “minister of any religious denomination” can only have their wedding performed by a short list of government officials — mostly judges, retired judges and court administrators. So religious couples can have a deeply personal ceremony at a venue of their choosing, performed by a religious official that they may already have a relationship with. Secular couples who prefer not to be married by a minister, by contrast, are likely to have fewer options unless they are personal friends with a judge.

A lawsuit filed by an atheist group and one of its members, however, could change this calculation. The suit makes several arguments claiming that “representatives of atheist organizations” should have the same right to solemnize marriages that ordained ministers have. Among other things, the suit relies on the Supreme Court’s 2005 holding in McCreary County v. ACLU that “the ‘First Amendment mandates governmental neutrality between religion and religion, and between religion and nonreligion.‘” It also quotes heavily from a recent federal appeals court decision “allowing certified secular humanist celebrants to solemnize marriages in Indiana.”

So the legal basis for this suit is strong, at least under existing law. It should be noted, however, that there are five justices on the Supreme Court who appear eager to rethink longstanding precedents protecting the wall of separation between church and state. Justice Anthony Kennedy, for example, who is widely viewed as the most moderate member of the Court’s conservative bloc on social issues, has complained in the past that Court decisions protecting this wall of separation show an “unjustified hostility toward religion.” Although Kennedy has written that the “government may not coerce anyone to support or participate in religion or its exercise,” it is not at all clear that Kennedy would view a law discriminating between secular and religious weddings as coercive.

Should this lawsuit fail, it’s also worth noting that the suit targets a particular county, Washington County, that has broken from other Minnesota jurisdictions that permit atheists to perform marriages — Washington County, according to a document filed by the plaintiffs in this lawsuit, claims that atheism is not a “religious denomination.” Additionally, the atheist group acknowledges that “obscure or fake religions” such as “the Universal Life Church and the Church of the Latter Day Dude, a religion of the Big Lebowski” offer online ordinations that can be used to get around the Minnesota law. Nevertheless, the group says, “many atheists who want to be certified as marriage celebrants do not want to engage in the hypocrisy of pretending they are ministers of phony churches.”

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/10/28/3584798/minnesota-atheists-sue-for-right-to-perform-marriages-just-like-ordained-ministers/

This doesn't have to be a religion vs. non-religion battle. All the state has to do is expand the list of non-ministers to include "marriage commissioners" or the like. After all, who says these judges and such are religious?

We've had marriage "celebrants" for as long as I can remember. I don't think the issue of whether they are atheists or not has ever been considered. In fact, I don't remember their ever being any kind of controversy involving them.
The guy who performed our wedding asked if we wanted to remove all reference to God from the service, but seemed quite happy when we said "no".

Actually its a nice little earner. I once even considered taking it up as a part-time job.

Atheists obviously cannot/should not perform religious ceremonies, but there is NO reason why atheists cannot/should not perform civil ceremonies ~ but don't underestimate the strength and power of the far right "Christian nation" mindset here in the US ~

Sooz

I'm an atheist, but if I had become a marriage celebrant and someone had asked me to perform a "traditional Christian" (or other religious) ceremony it wouldn't have bothered me a bit. Why would it be a problem?

Frankly, if I was the court receiving this complaint I would probably dismiss it as frivolous. Atheists can already go to non-religious sources to get married. If they have a problem with the number of sources they can go to, it's a political problem, not a legal one. They should be complaining to their State senators or whatever, not wasting court time and State money.

It's pushback time.

Push back against what? They've got what they want. They could even do what they've done before in a number of cases and claim that atheism is a religion. Then they could have their own ministers.

Pushback against religionists pushing laws through based on religion rather than rights.

Seems to me that if they wanted to do that they should raise a Constitutional issue over Ministers, etc., being able to perform marriages. After all marriage is primarily a government administered contract and having ministers perform them is an unsuitable mixture of church and state.

Or make a civil marriage the only legally recognized marriage without prohibiting religious ceremonies.

Our marriage was performed by a commissioner, or commissionaire as they can be called. We met with her before the ceremony to discuss what we wanted. We didn't want anything religious, so she had some comments and vows that were absolutely perfect! Very moving, yet secular. We let her go with it and didn't know the text until the ceremony. Gotta have SOME surprises, ya know? She also presented us with a clear folder, with a header page of our names and the entire text of the ceremony. Another nice little surprise. I have it......somewhere. lol

Most Germans marry twice Officially in front of a government officer (Standesamt) and after that 15-20 minute procedure the religious humbug in a church is optional.
Mine were three months apart. Small family at the Standesamt, big family event at the catholic church later.