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

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• recognizing that the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause require a state to administer its laws neutrally as between different religions and as between religion and equivalent secular organizations
• noting that “what a chosen agent of the government says” is inherently “part of the government’s own operations”
• noting that Marsh and Town of Greece concern “what a chosen agent of the government says as part of the government’s own operations,” but “do not concern how a state regulates private conduct” (emphasis in original)
• reaching merits of challenge to Indiana’s marriage-solemnization statute when individuals who wanted a secular celebrant to solemnize their marriage were also among the initial plaintiffs
• finding similar Indiana marriage law to discriminate against CFI and its secular celebrants, where both the county clerk and county prosecutor were named as defendants
• “Marsh and Greece show that a government may, consistent with the First Amendment, open legislative sessions with Christian prayers while not inviting leaders of other religions[.]”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).