A judge in New Jersey last week ruled against a religious institution that sought to prevent a same-sex couple from using its beachside boardwalk pavilion for a commitment ceremony.
Judge Solomon Metzger found Jan. 12 that the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association violated the state’s Law Against Discrimination when it denied a lesbian couple access to its pavilion, which it had been renting to heterosexual couples for wedding ceremonies.
At the time complainants Harriet Bernstein and Luisa Paster applied to use the pavilion in 2007, Metzger said the structure was functioning as a public accommodation, subject to the state’s nondiscrimination law, which includes sexual orientation and gender identity.
Following the denial of the couple’s application, the association ceased renting the pavilion for weddings.
Additionally, Metzger noted the association had a tax exemption from the state, which requires nonprofit entities to open up their property for “public use on an equal basis.”
“When we first started planning our civil union, we had no idea that it would come to this,” Bernstein said. “We weren’t asking the association to change their beliefs. We just wanted them to give us the same opportunity to use a beautiful space that we had seen open for public use.”
The couple filed a complaint with the Division on Civil Rights, which in 2008 found probable cause that the association violated the nondiscrimination law.
The case came before Metzger, an administrative law judge, for his finding.
Metzger wrote in his opinion that he did not believe the association acted with “ill motive,” but rather that the organization’s religious beliefs placed it “on the wrong side of recent changes in the law,” referring to the 2006 adoption of New Jersey’s civil-union law.
Metzger did not recommend monetary damages but said “the finding of wrongdoing should be an adequate redress.”
The case will now return to the Division on Civil Rights, whose director will have 45 days to adopt the decision or make changes to it.
Alliance Defense Fund, which is representing the association, said it is considering its next steps, which could include an appeal.
“The government should not be able to force a private Christian organization to use its property in a way that would violate its own religious beliefs,” said ADF Litigation Staff Counsel Jim Campbell.
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].