Conservative states balk at gay-marriage action

Associated Press

WICHITA, Kan.

Conservative officials in some of the six states where Supreme Court action this week likely cleared the way for same-sex weddings say they won’t issue marriage licenses to gay couples until their hands are forced. Now, gay-rights advocates are preparing to do just that.

James Esseks, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Project, called the court’s action a “watershed moment for the entire country,” and other gay-rights activists described plans Tuesday to challenge remaining bans.

On Monday, the Supreme Court refused to take up appeals from five states seeking to preserve their bans. Couples in six other states — Colorado, Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wyoming — would be bound by those same appellate rulings that were put on hold.

In Kansas, Attorney General Derek Schmidt noted that to date no court has squarely decided whether the Kansas Constitution’s prohibition on same-sex marriage is invalid, and he said that the state will deal with any litigation as it comes. Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, fighting a close re-election battle, has said the state should defend the ban.

“The people have spoken on this,” Brownback said. “I don’t know how much more you can bolster it than to have a vote of the people to put in the constitution that marriage is the union of a man and a woman.”

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead has said that the state’s attorney general will continue defending its constitution defining marriage between a man and a woman and that the U.S. Supreme Court refusal to hear appeals of gay marriage bans had no impact on a state case contesting that definition.

South Carolina’s attorney general said if a court specifically rules against its gay marriage ban, he will then decide how to proceed.

Meanwhile, some of the indirectly affected states didn’t feel the need to wait. In liberal Colorado, which is covered by the same 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals as Kansas, gay marriage now is officially legal. Attorney General John Suthers said Tuesday that all of the state’s counties must issue the licenses.

Also Tuesday, a federal appeals court declared gay marriage legal in Idaho and Nevada, setting the stage for couples to marry in Las Vegas, the self-proclaimed wedding capital of the world.

The order, issued Tuesday evening, also means that same-sex couples in Idaho can start getting married immediately.