Boulder’s county clerk, who has defiantly issued more than 200 marriage licenses to same-sex couples, reluctantly stopped after the Colorado Supreme Court issued a ruling on Tuesday.
The state’s high court said it will hear arguments in an ongoing fight over whether clerks can issue marriage licenses to gay couples before the U.S. Supreme Court decides the constitutionality of gay marriage bans. In accepting the case, the court also ordered Boulder County Clerk and Recorder Hillary Hall — the first and last Colorado clerk to issue licenses — to immediately stop.
But the order also indicates that the earliest the state Supreme Court will make a ruling on the issue would be late this year, possibly giving the state a breath after weeks of rapid developments in the various cases.
The order was a victory for Attorney General John Suthers, who had offered compromises to Hall, issued deadlines and asked both local and state judges to stop her from issuing the licenses. Until Tuesday, Hall had seen a month-long string of legal victories that had allowed her to continue issuing the licenses even as other clerks were told to halt the practice.
DOCUMENT: Read the state Supreme Court order.
“This really was jumping the gun,” Suthers said of Hall’s decision to issue the licenses. “In the sense that, yes, the state of anticipation, the state of perceived inevitability, but that does not justify abandoning the process by which legal change comes about.”
Suthers, who argued that Hall’s actions were causing legal confusion in the state, told The Denver Post his office was pleased with the ruling and stressed the importance of all 64 clerks being “on the same page” as a higher court decides the issue.
In a statement, Hall said she would stop issuing the licenses.
“I am disappointed by the Colorado Supreme Court’s stay, but I will comply with the order,” Hall said in a statement. “Given the avalanche of recent cases determining that same-sex marriage bans are unconstitutional, I am hopeful the stay will be short-lived and that we will be able to resume issuing licenses soon.”
Hall’s office has issued 202 licenses to same-sex couples since the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Utah’s gay marriage ban unconstitutional on June 25. The U.S. Supreme Court issued an order that prevents gay marriages from going forward in Utah, for now.
The Supreme Court will announce whether it will hear arguments in the case as early as this fall. But it remains uncertain if the Colorado Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case before the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether to take up the issue.
If the U.S. Supreme Court does not take up the Utah case, then the 10th Circuit decision stands, and gay marriage bans in all six states within the district — including Colorado — become unconstitutional.
About 350 same-sex marriage licenses have been issued in Colorado since Hall stated approving the licenses in June. The question of their validity has not yet been addressed in court.
Adams County District Court Judge C. Scott Crabtree ruled the state’s voter-approved ban unconstitutional on July 9, but he immediately stayed his ruling.
The next day, Boulder District Court Judge Andrew Hartman denied a request by Suthers to stop Hall from issuing the licenses. That ruling led clerks in Denver and Pueblo counties to begin issuing licenses as well.
Eight days later, the state Supreme Court rejected Suthers’ emergency request to order all 64 clerks to quit approving the licenses and instead ordered only Denver and Adams counties to stop. The Adams clerk had not started issuing the licenses, and Denver County Clerk and Recorder Debra Johnson immediately stopped.
On July 21, Suthers persuaded Pueblo Clerk and Recorder Gilbert Ortiz quit issuing licenses. The same day, Suthers asked the Colorado Court of Appeals to order Hall to stop, and that request was later denied.
Suthers on Monday asked the state Supreme Court to stop Hall.
Jordan Steffen: 303-954-1794, jsteffen@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jsteffendp
