Center for Inquiry, Inc. v. Marion Circuit Court Clerk

Dist. Ct. erred in denying plaintiffs’ request for injunctive relief in section 1983 action alleging that Indiana’s marriage-solemnization statute violates 1st Amendment by giving religions who have established clergy opportunity to solemnize marriage ceremonies, but precluded leaders in plaintiff-non profit corporation, which describes itself as humanist group that promotes ethical living without belief in deity, from solemnizing marriages. Under 1st Amendment’s neutrality principles, state cannot make distinction between religious and secular beliefs that hold same place in adherents’ lives, and Ct. rejected state claim that it would allow humanists to solemnize marriages if and only if they falsely declared that they constituted religious group.