Employees who refuse to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies at the San Diego County Clerk’s Office are facing reassignment.

San Diego County Clerk Greg Smith said in May that he would allow employees with religious objections to avoid performing the ceremonies.

“I don’t think it’s correct to force employees to do it, and I don’t think you would want someone who is hostile to your beliefs performing your ceremony,” Smith said.

But with 14 employees who raised objections, the response was more than the County Clerk’s office could accommodate.

Employees were told they must perform the ceremonies without discrimination or seek a reassignment within the department or the county.

“The Department is still exploring possible ways to accommodate your religious concerns, but you should realize that it will be impossible for you to remain in your current assignment,” employees were told in a June 5 e-mail.

While the office has 112 people deputized to perform wedding ceremonies, only 30 do so as part of their regular duties. Officials would not say whether the 14 employees who objected were part of the larger or smaller group.

“It would unfairly burden other employees and would directly compromise the services we provide to the public, particularly given that so many employees have requested the same arrangement,” Smith’s office told the 14 employees.

Several employees withdrew those objections after they were told they would be reassigned, but others did not, Smith said.

He said it was the department’s policy that workers were not allowed to choose which marriages they would perform and which they would not.

“No employee has been allowed to ‘opt out’ of performing marriage for certain couples, while retaining the responsibility to perform marriage functions for other couples,” Smith said.

Those who stood by their objection are being accommodated via reassignment within the department or transfer to a similar classification in another department.

While the County Clerk’s office declined to offer details about employees who raised objections because county lawyers advised against it, Smith has said that they have been removed from performing marriages or having anything to do with marriage functions at all.

County Counsel John Sansone said according to Government Code Section 12940, state law ensures that employers don’t force their employees to do anything that goes against their religious beliefs, which is why the county gave employees other options.

However, the question of whether to allow employees to refuse to perform same-sex marriages poses a difficult legal question. Opponents of same-sex weddings say reassigning workers who object because of personal religious views is discriminatory.

One religious group, Advocates for Faith and Freedom, sent out a press release contacting county clerk offices around the state offering information for employees who don’t want to perform same-sex marriages.

Forcing employees to perform the marriages violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act, the group said.

“Same-sex couples have argued that their personal sexual choices require public acceptance in order for equal protection to exist,” said Robert Tyler, a spokesman for Advocates for Faith and Freedom. “It will be tragic if this pursuit of equality actually results in inequality and discrimination against people of faith seeking to adhere to religious liberty.”

San Diego was not the only county where religious objections from county clerk employees came up.

But it is the county that has the most objections according to officials.

By contrast, the issue did not come up in Alameda County in the San Francisco Bay Area or in Orange County. No county employees who perform civil wedding ceremonies requested to opt out for religious or other reasons, officials said.

Several clerks said their county’s attorney advised them that no employee is allowed to opt out.

While Smith’s office said the exact number of licenses granted by the Clerk’s office were unavailable, the San Diego office has had its business roughly double since the California Supreme Court ruling lifting the ban on same-sex marriage.

By the end of the first week the county had issued 549 licenses and conducted 287 ceremonies.

And according to officials a record 230 couples obtained marriage licenses in the county when same-sex marriages began on June 17, with 144 of them exchanging vows at the Clerk’s office that day. The previous record of 176 licenses issued was set on Valentine’s Day three years ago.