Missoula Anti Discrimination Ordinance Differs From Coeur d’ Alene Idaho Case [YouTube]
A wedding chapel in Coeur d' Alene, Idaho has garnered national media attention after running afoul of that city's anti discrimination ordinance
The Hitching Post Wedding Chapel, run by the Knapp family, has refused to marry a same-sex couple, after that state's constitutional ban on homosexual marriage was overturned by a federal court. This move could open the chapel's owners to a jail term of up to 180 days, and up to $1,000 per day that they refuse to comply with the ordinance.
The Knapps claim their first amendment right to freedom of religion is being trampled in the case.
Missoula also has an anti discrimination ordinance, passed in April of 2010. Missoula City Attorney Jim Nugent says the Missoula ordinance and the Coeur d' Alene ordinance are vastly different.
"In Missoula, the city council specifically said that violation of the ordinance would bring a civil penalty, at least for the first three offenses during a 12 month period," Nugent said. "There has never been anything filed in municipal court in the nearly four and a half years that the ordinance has existed. Furthermore, and most importantly, the Missoula City Council said in their penalty section, that imprisonment is not a penalty for violating this ordinance. So, what you're describing in Idaho simply can't occur in Missoula."
Nugent went on to state that in his opinion, it would be some time before Montana's constitutional amendment concerning marriage being between one man and one woman could be overturned, since the case is only at the U.S. district court level.