Attorney accused of defending Amendment 3 to impose religious viewpoint

[rug]

By McKenzie Romero, Deseret News
Published: Wednesday, Jan. 22 2014 10:35 p.m. MST
Updated: 1 hour ago

SALT LAKE CITY — Gene Schaerr, hired by the state to help defend Utah's Amendment 3, was accused Wednesday of taking the job "to impose a certain religious viewpoint," but Attorney General Sean Reyes says the attorney was selected because of his expertise in constitutional and appellate law.

According to an email circulated online Wednesday, Schaerr told co-workers at the Washington, D.C., law firm Winston & Strawn that he was resigning to "fulfill what I have come to see as a religious and family duty: defending constitutionality of traditional marriage in the state where my church is headquartered and where most of my family resides."

The Human Rights Campaign, a national organization that works to ensure equal rights for LGBT people, said Wednesday that Schaerr's motivation was religious rather than an interest in defending whether the state's voter-approved definition of marriage is constitutional.

"Schaerr's entire motivation for taking this anti-equality case is to impose a certain religious viewpoint on all Utahns, and that's wrong," said Fred Sainz, the Human Rights Campaign's communications vice president. "When you become an attorney, you take an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution, not any particular religious doctrine."

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865594704/Attorney-accused-of-defending-Amendment-3-to-impose-religious-viewpoint.html

http://www.hrc.org/blog/entry/utah-special-attorney-general-cites-religious-duty-in-decision-to-take-anti

[longship]

1. A reasonable conclusion.

Given that the Mormon Church has consistently lobbied against all such LBGT equality issues.