WLOS — ASHEVILLE, N.C. — After a Monday hearing in federal court, a United States district court judge is
set to determine whether a lawsuit challenging magistrates’ rights to recuse themselves from performing same-sex weddings will go forward.

SB2 is a 2015 bill that allows county magistrates to refuse marrying same-sex couples for religious reasons.

Judge Max Cogburn repeatedly indicated how the plaintiff’s attorneys had to describe that they had standing to file the lawsuit since magistrates performed the marriages in McDowell County. A News 13 investigation found the magistrates performing the marriages in McDowell County were not from that county, but from Rutherford County.

The investigation also revealed that taxpayers footed the bill for the gas spent to travel between the two locations.