Did Supreme Court Cancel Judges’ Free Speech Rights?

A small-town magistrate who lost her job after explaining to a reporter that her Lutheran faith would not allow her to perform a same-sex wedding is petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ruth Neely is appealing a Wyoming Supreme Court decision against her that if allowed to stand, “poses a broad threat to judges’ expressive freedom, reaching far beyond the circumstances of this case,” contends the petition submitted by her legal team, the Alliance Defending Freedom.

Neely was publicly censured by the Wyoming Commission on Judicial Conduct and Ethics and forced out of her job as a magistrate for explaining to reporter Ned Donovan of the Pinedale, Wyoming, newspaper that her faith precluded her from performing same-sex ceremonies

Donovan told an editor that he wanted to get Neely “sacked,” according to the complaint.

Neely’s comment to the reporter was brought to the attention of Wendy Soto, the executive director of the ethics commission and a former board member of the LGBT advocacy group Wyoming Equality. (Read more from “Did Supreme Court Cancel Judges’ Free Speech Rights?” HERE)

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