Grand Jury Accused NY Judge of Bigotry For Refusing to Marry Two Women
The judge told a city clerk she wouldn’t marry them because of her religious beliefs.
Featured photo by Daniel Portela/Pexels
A New York state agency that is charged with investigating complaints against judges has defended its decision not to remove an elected Syracuse judge for refusing to marry two women. A grand jury had accused her of “bigotry,” according to a recently unsealed report.
In a ruling on Friday, an appellate court in Rochester said the report, which had previously been sealed, should be released.
The seven-page report by a local grand jury was signed on December 16, 2024. It said that Syracuse City Judge Felicia Pitts-Davis should “be removed from the Syracuse City Court bench,” according to local station WSYR.
The grand jury wrote that she “laid bare her bigotry towards homosexual people and her willingness to put her personal feelings above her oath as an official charged with discharging the law,” Syracuse.com reports.
The report noted that Pitts-Davis told a city clerk that her religious views would prevent her from conducting the marriage ceremony for Nicorra Davis-Ogletree and Shawntay Davis in October 2024, and to move it to another date so she wouldn’t have to do it. She then told the clerk she “would like for this conversation to stay between us.”
Davis-Ogletree and Davis had already gotten their marriage license, had witnesses ready, and had a reception organized. The city clerk alerted her supervisors, and eventually the wedding was kept for that day. Supervising Syracuse City Court Judge Mary Anne Doherty had to step in to do the ceremony on her day off.
However, Davis said that Pitt-Davis had conducted a heterosexual marriage in the courtroom where weddings were happening and left with what appeared to be “disgust on her face.”
“It made me feel small,” she told the grand jury, according to Syracuse.com. “It made me feel like I wasn’t normal.”
Doherty is in a same-sex marriage herself, and recounted to the grand jury how she had been forced to leave the country to marry her wife before marriage equality was legal in the U.S., and told Davis and Davis-Ogletree her story to help comfort them. She told the grand jury she was professionally and personally shocked a fellow judge would hold such views about marriage equality.
As local media notes, in addition to reviewing criminal charges, grand juries can also review complaints against public officials. However, the ability to punish a judge lies with the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct.
The commission said it would censure Pitt-Davis, but would not remove her. It said the scathing grand jury report didn’t include the entire investigation that went into its decision.
“The 17-page decision by the Commission on Judicial Conduct to censure Judge Pitts-Davis in March 2026 was based on an extensive investigation considerably more detailed and nuanced than what appears in the 7-page Grand Jury report of December 2024 that was only made public this week,” the commission said in a statement to WSYR. “In addition to hearing from the judge herself, which the Grand Jury did not, the Commission reported that she had previously performed same-sex marriages and had committed to doing so in the future if no other judges were available.”
It continued: “The Commission decision spelled out other highly significant facts about the pertinent sequence of events that the Grand Jury report did not. Describing the outdated Grand Jury report without comparing it side-by-side to the more recent and more extensive Commission decision creates an inaccurate picture of the events, which is likely why both the judge and the District Attorney had recommended that the Grand Jury report remain sealed.”
This case was the first the commission dealt with involving a refusal to officiate a same-sex marriage, Syracuse.com reports.
The outlet reports Pitts-Davis’ term ends in 2030.
