This is cross-posted with permission from the California Faith for Equality website. In the blog, Laura Compton of Mormons for Marriage mentions Mormon football hero Steve Young, a direct descendent of Mormon hero Brigham Young. It is important to remember that Young and his wife strongly opposed Prop 8. Additionally, right-winger Glenn Beck says gay marriage makes no difference to him. So being Mormon may make no more difference in someone being antigay than being Catholic, Christian or Jewish. A more reliable determining factor would be judicial decision, which Syd Peterson noted earlier. – Karen O.
Is Judge Smith a Mormon?
By Samuel Chu and Laura Compton
So is Judge Smith a Mormon?
The answer – I don’t know and it is none of my damn business.
Almost immediately after the announcement of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel reviewing the Prop 8 challenge, questions popped up regarding the religious background of one of the three judges named. The speculations around Judge Norman Randy Smith stemmed from the fact that Smith went to Brigham Young University for both his undergraduate and law school education.
A friend of California Faith for Equality, Laura Compton, who is herself Mormon and heads the website MormonsforMarriage.org shares her thoughts:
I think that anyone crying foul/unfair due to a judge’s religious views makes the same amount of sense as crying foul/unfair because of a judge’s orientation. Just as it was absurd to question Judge Walker’s ruling because he’s not straight, it is absurd to question the ability of any judge based solely on his/her religious beliefs.
Any judge worth his salt knows better than to judge civil law by the tenets of the Book of Mormon/Bible rather than by the requirements of the Constitution. It’s not like this is the first time they will have been asked to review a sticky moral-political issue, and I’m sure that if they feel they cannot sit in judgment without a conflict of interest they will step down and let another judge sit on in their stead.
Would we question a judge’s ability to hear the case if she were Catholic? Orthodox Jew? Southern Baptist? Unitarian? Atheist? What about if he’s quoting Star Trek in his judicial opinions (as happened recently in Texas)?
If N. Randy Smith is Mormon, which seems likely given his degree from BYU’s law school, and if the LGBT community raises a fuss because he’s on the case, all they will do is feed the monster of misunderstanding that’s grown from the Prop 8 fight. You won’t make the monster go away by feeding it. You make it go away by starving it. Examine Smith’s judicial record, not his religious record.
Harry Reid and Glenn Beck and Steve Young are all Mormons – there’s a pretty broad spectrum of belief and practice within the religion and usually just because a judge is religious doesn’t mean religion is the primary motivating factor in writing judicial decisions.
Laura Compton
Webmaster, MormonsforMarriage.org
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Judge Smith is an adjunct professor at Idaho State University, which I attend. This university’s College of Business supports a friendly atmosphere between professors and students. I know much about each of the professors I have had, but after having taken classes from Judge Smith, I still don’t know his religious views. If he doesn’t use the classroom as a setting to exhibit whatever religion he may or may not practice, I don’t see why he would use the courtroom as such.
As to whether Judge Smith’s religion matters in his interpretation of the issues in the Prop 8 case will depend on how and on what grounds he rules. I know nothing about his history of judicial rulings other than that he is a conservative jurist. Does that conservatism come from his religious background? Does he tend to rule according to the dictates of the Church? Those are questions that are fair. I don’t assume that all Mormons are bigots or that all Mormons follow the dictates of their Church. But a lot of them are and a lot of them do. The Mormon Church has a history of direct influence on the actions of their adherents, especially the more prominent ones.
I think it’s a really sad commentary that someone even needs to write an article explaining that Smith being Mormon is as relevant as Walker being gay. Now, it is entirely fair to point out that no one comes to the table without preconceptions and certain biases which may incline them to look at an issue in a different way than other people would. Personally, I think Judge Smith’s background will make him an even more faithful adherent of the actual Constitution rather than the Constitution seen through conservative or liberal lenses.