Boulder, Colorado Clerk Issuing Same-Sex Marriage Licenses.

June 25th, 2014

I can’t blog quickly enough to keep up with this disregard for the rule of law. This morning, the 10th Circuit found Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage, but, in keeping with the Supreme Court’s dictate, stayed its order.

Today, the Boulder County, Colorado Clerk and Recorder took the Constitution into her own hands:

 In response to the historic ruling in the 10th Circuit Court today, Boulder County Clerk and Recorder Hillary Hall will begin issuing same sex marriage licenses immediately, beginning today, June 25, 2014 in our Boulder office at 1750 33rd Street, and in our Lafayette and Longmont offices starting Friday, June 27, 2014.
Because 10th Circuit decisions are binding in the State of Colorado, the precedent established by Kitchen v. Herbert is applicable to the same-sex marriage ban contained in the Colorado Constitution. The Tenth Circuit found that “those who wish to marry a person of the same sex are entitled to exercise the same fundamental right as is recognized for persons who wish to marry a person of the opposite sex.”

Clerk Hall intends to uphold the fundamental right to marriage now recognized by 10th Circuit by issuing marriage licenses to any person who wishes to marry. “Couples across Colorado have been waiting a long time to have their right to marry the person they love recognized,” stated Boulder County Clerk Hillary Hall. “I want to act immediately to let them carry out that wish.”

Marriage licenses will be issued at the Boulder County Clerk and Recorder’s office in Boulder today until 4:30 p.m. and will resume tomorrow at 8 a.m.
This is a stunning disregard for the law. The judgment was stayed. The judgment affected a Utah law. The judgment had NOTHING to do with Colorado. And marriage licenses have already been handed out.
“Couples across Colorado have been waiting a long time to have their right to marry the person they love recognized,” said Hall in a statement. “I want to act immediately to let them carry out that wish.”
The Colorado Attorney General has already stated these marriages licenses are invalid.

But now, those granted the licenses will have some sort of vested right, and will be able to make some kind of due process claim why it can’t be taken away. I am flummoxed.

 

Update: It seems the Denver registrar is not handing out licenses.

 

Update: We should all feel relieved that the Boulder clerk “feels” this is right.

Update: The clerk continues to issue permits, and won’t stop till a Court tells her otherwise.

But Colorado Attorney General John Suthers (R) clarified Wednesday afternoon that the marriages would be invalid because the 10th Circuit’s decision was stayed, noting, that it “has not gone into effect even in Utah, let alone in Colorado.” Hall countered that her county’s legal team determined that the stay only applied to Utah and the officials involved in that case. She says that she will continue to issue licenses “unless a court in Colorado or the U.S. Supreme Court tells me otherwise.”