Work card for clergy tabled

Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2000 | 11:18 a.m.

Clark County Clerk Shirley Parraguirre said today she is suspending new regulations that would have required police background checks on ministers who perform marriages.

Parraguirre said that when she announced the new rules last week -- the first addressing certification for the area's more than 1,500 ministers -- she never expected the controversy that has snowballed in recent days.

Las Vegas religious leaders called the new regulations that also would have required ministers to have their permits to perform marriages renewed every five years a government-issued "work card" to perform a sacrament.

"I am pulling the regulations at this time to look at them again," Parraguirre said. "I will meet with area ministers, the American Civil Liberties Union and the district attorney. Perhaps this matter should go back to the Legislature to add more specificity to the state law or change it."

Parraguirre said the district attorney's office had suggested written regulations because, "the state statute on this was very vague, but it placed the responsibility for regulating marriages on the county clerk.

"All I attempted to do was make sure those who performed marriages were not felons and that I set standards that treated all people the same. I never expected this (a groundswell of controversy). I guess I've learned my first lesson about the politics of this job."

Religious leaders, who were caught off guard by Parraguirre's pre-Christmas announcement, said Tuesday the regulations are off base.

"It is a case of government deciding who should perform sacraments -- that's a lack of respect for religions," said Michael Slater, executive director of the Las Vegas Interfaith Council, a multi-denominational group that champions the rights of low-wage laborers and others.

"I don't know what else you would call this but a work card. It requires ministers who move to report their change of address like a work card. It requires police background checks like a work card."

Most disturbing, Slater said, the new regulations would have allowed the county clerk to rescind a permit if the clerk determined that a minister had violated a moral turpitude clause.

Alan Lichtenstein, general counsel for the local ACLU, says it is, "absolutely frightening that without a trial the county clerk could make such a determination. There is no due process."

Lichtenstein says the police background checks trouble him because there are no limits placed on what the police can look for, paving the way for police or government leaders who simply don't like a person or their religion to deny them the right to perform marriages.

"It is discriminating because even if the county's intent was to stop the itinerant minister who travels the country without the benefit of a recognized ordination from performing marriages, then that would apply to the type of man whose birthday was celebrated Monday -- Jesus Christ."

The regulations were designed to give teeth to an old state law that prohibits ex-felons from performing marriages for 10 years after their convictions.

Part of that law requires that, to perform marriages, a minister must conduct weekly services before at least 20 parishioners. That, Lichtenstein said, could disqualify the Pope, a Catholic bishop or any clergy who otherwise serve in administrative roles from performing marriages in Southern Nevada.

Some ministers, like the Rev. Spencer Barrett, pastor of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Las Vegas, are looking forward to meeting with Parraguirre and expressing their views.

"The existing regulations were working and did not need to be changed," Barrett said, also calling the pulled regulations an attempt to issue work cards to the clergy.

"The new regulations overstep the boundaries of the division of church and state. While the county may view marriage as an industry, I do not think they can legally go in and regulate a sacrament."

In a letter to Parraguirre, Barrett wrote: "Freedom of religion means generally that the government cannot authorize a church, cannot pass laws that aid or favor one religion over another, cannot favor religious beliefs over non-belief, cannot force a person to profess a belief."

As for police background checks, Barrett wrote: "If the denomination qualifies a minister to perform marriages, that should be sufficient for the state."

Under the new ordinance, an estimated 800 ministers who have held their licenses for more than five years would have had to have their certificates renewed by April 1.

Background checks, however, would have been required only of ministers seeking new licenses. Those too are on hold, Parraguirre said.