Tennessee Judge Oversteps His Authority

A Child Support Magistrate in Tennessee has widely overstepped his authority and told the parents of a seven month-old that they must change his name from Messiah to Martin on grounds that Messiah is a title, and not a name.  The parents, who were not able to agree on a last name for the child and were attempting to establish paternity, were trying to get their son's last name changed from Martin to McCullough.  In the process, Judge Lu Ann Ballew ordered, with no agreement or even a request from either parent, to change the child's first name from Messiah to Martin, because, and I quote,

"The word Messiah is a title and it's a title that has only been earned by one person and that one person is Jesus Christ."

 The judge later said to reporters,

"It could put him at odds with a lot of people and at this point he has had no choice in what his name is." 

Another Misuse of Authority

  To the first point, what?  First off, since when is a title not valid to be used as a name?  Unless I am horribly mistaken, there is no law that states a child cannot be named Mister, King, Prince, Princess, or any other name the parents choose.  The only leeway I see the court having would be if the parents named the child something inappropriate, in which case the name would cause serious issues once he or she enrolled in school.  Otherwise, the court should have no power to change a person's name because they feel like it.  This is ridiculous.

It isn't as if the name Messiah is completely unheard of.  According to the US Social Security Administration, Messiah was the 387th most popular name in 2012.  According to babynamewizard.com, there are 194 Messiah's per one million babies, so of the approximately four million babies born in the United States in 2012, around 776 of them are named Messiah.  The name Jesus is far more common due to its popularity in Hispanic communities, coming in as the 101st most popular baby name in 2012, yet there doesn't appear to be any issue with Jesus as a name.  

Religion and Law do Not Mix

Secondly, way to make your decision so blatantly about religion, not law, Judge Ballew.  Regardless of whether this child "earned" the name Messiah, that is the name they chose.  There is no legal grounds for changing his name, so instead the judge uses religion as his reasoning for ordering the name change.  This ruling is so absurd, even the American Family Association, a far-right group that opposes abortion, pornography, and any same-sex rights, going as far as boycotting companies that offer same-sex partner benefits to employees, thinks the judge overstepped his authority.

I feel bad for those Tennesseans who disagree with this ruling, because this is just another news story that makes readers think, "Of course, this happened in Tennessee (or insert any other state south of the Mason-Dixon line.)"  There is a long-held prejudice that the US south is just a bunch of Bible-thumping, moonshine-drinking, gun-toting, backwards hicks.  This is (mostly) wrong, but it is stories like this that perpetuate people's preconceived notions of the south.

This Ruling Will Get Overturned

Had this been a busy news day, this story likely would never have caused such a stir.  I would have been confident this ruling would get overturned even without the media coverage, and now with it, I cannot see this case turning out any other way.  This judge will likely get some flak for his ruling, but ultimately will keep his job.  This is going to become a forgotten story in a couple weeks, but it is just another in a long line of forgotten stories of judges, prosecutors, police, politicians, or any other person of authority overstepping their bounds and applying their personal beliefs to their job.