Has anyone actually been prosecuted for this? The specific statute bans solemnizing a marriage without them having a license, but since North Carolina law doesn't recognize same-sex marriage as being a marriage, I fail to see how that law would apply. In other words, I think the UCC may end up having their case dismissed due to a lack of standing because of an inability to show how they are being affected here unless there have been some actual prosecutions of ministers performing same-sex ceremonies.
I can't say. Whether or not that law is enforced is another question, but I don't see why a court would uphold a law that's clearly unconstitutional regardless of whether it's ever been used against someone or not. Plus, I don't expect the case to solely be about what ministers are allowed to do in their own churches. At least, I don't expect such a case to move forward without any regurgitation of arguments used against other state marriage bans and the precedents established by Windsor.
The law doesn't prohibit ministers from solemnizing same-sex marriages specifically, so it's doubtful that they would be able to apply the same reasoning they did in
Windsor.
But yeah, this law is horrible on so many levels.
