ACLU is suing to sanctify vows

The ACLU of Pennsylvania yesterday filed lawsuits in Philadelphia, Bucks and Montgomery Counties seeking to validate the marriages of couples whose wedding ceremonies were performed by ministers ordained online.

The suits are part of a planned statewide challenge to developments that endanger the status of potentially thousands of marriages in Pennsylvania.

On Sept. 9, York County Court Judge Maria Musti Cook ruled that the 2006 marriage of Dorie Heyer and Jacob Hollerbush was invalid because their officiant, ordained by the Universal Life Church, was unqualified. Cook ruled that the officiant did not regularly preach in a church or to an established congregation.

The estranged couple had sought the invalidation in lieu of divorce.

Cook's ruling was not binding in other counties, but David Cleaver, a lawyer for the statewide Registers of Wills and Clerks of Orphans' Court Association, immediately warned clerks in all 67 counties not to accept any marriage certificates signed by an officiant with potentially questionable qualifications.

Reached by phone yesterday, Cleaver said he was not prepared to comment on the American Civil Liberties Union suit.

Mary Catherine Roper, staff attorney for the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said that according to state law, when the validity of a marriage is in question for any reason, the couple may seek declaratory judgment from the court.

"And that's what we're asking for here," Roper said.

The ACLU will appeal any other decision, she said.

Roper said the issue was whether the state may determine which ministers are acceptable and which are not.

"The marriage statute says a marriage can be performed by clergy of any regularly established church or congregation," she said.

Federal courts have repeatedly ruled in favor of the Universal Life Church, saying it meets the criterion of "regularly established."

G. Martin Freeman, presiding chaplain of the Universal Life Church, said yesterday that the ACLU was trying to accomplish in Pennsylvania what had happened in 2002 in Utah. There, a federal court ruled that neither the state nor the federal government may intervene to determine who and who is not qualified to officiate at a wedding.

But Cleaver said some individuals thought online ordination made a mockery of marriage.

As news of the York County ruling spread, Pennsylvania couples reported to the ACLU that some county clerks were trying to establish barriers to the use of online and other nontraditional officiants.

Bucks County Register of Wills Barbara Reilly urged couples to get remarried if their officiant did not regularly serve a congregation, and she asked some officiants to submit affidavits attesting to their qualifications.

Reached at her office yesterday, Reilly said she had not yet been served with the court papers and could not comment on the specifics of the lawsuit.

In the three lawsuits, two of the couples were married by officiants ordained by the Universal Life Church.

The Bucks County suit concerns Jason and Jennifer O'Neill, married in 2005 by Jason's uncle, a Universal Life minister. According to the suit, the couple wanted a religious ceremony but did not want to choose between the different religious traditions of their families. They said they had found that the Universal Life Church's principles reflected their beliefs.

The Montgomery County filing concerns Ryan and Melanie Hancock, who were married in 2005 by a friend ordained in the Universal Life Church. The Hancocks stated that they had grown up in different religious traditions and did not want to favor one over the other.

The third lawsuit concerns a 1976 ceremony conducted by a Jesuit priest who was clerking for the U.S. District Court. According to the suit, Peter Goldberger and Anna Durbin wanted a Catholic ceremony in accordance with the wishes of Durbin's family, but chose to marry in Philadelphia instead of her home parish in the state of Washington for the convenience of many East Coast friends and relatives. Goldberger and Durbin are lawyers who live in Ardmore and have raised three children.