Dozens of Gay-Marriage Licenses Issued in Colorado

DENVER -- Dozens more gay couples received marriage licenses in Colorado on Friday as a third county began granting them in the midst of a legal fight to resolve the issue for good.

Pueblo County, the latest in the state to give marriage licenses to gay couples, had served 25 couples by the end of the day, including two people from Mississippi who heard the news while traveling through Colorado and decided to get a license, Clerk Gilbert Ortiz said.

Pueblo joined Boulder County and Denver in allowing gay couples to marry, one day after a state judge ruled Thursday that the Boulder clerk can continue issuing licenses.

Some couples exchanged vows outside the clerk's office, while others took them home to hold a ceremony later.

Colorado's 2006 voter-approved gay marriage ban remains on the books. But state District Judge Andrew Hartman said it is "hanging on by a thread" following rulings by another state court and the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In Denver, Clerk Debra Johnson began granting gay-marriage licenses Thursday, shortly after Hartman's ruling. The county has granted more than 50 licenses to gay couples.

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers had sought to block the issuing of licenses, warning of "legal chaos." In a statement Thursday, he pledged to go to the state Supreme Court as soon as possible "to prevent a legal patchwork quilt from forming."

In Boulder County, 12 more gay couples got licenses Friday, bringing the total to 135 since the county clerk started issuing licenses two weeks ago. That's when the appeals court panel found Utah's gay marriage ban unconstitutional.

The ruling became law in all six states covered by the 10th Circuit - including Colorado - but the panel immediately put it on hold while Utah appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court.

On Wednesday, District Judge C. Scott Crabtree struck down Colorado's ban, joining multiple other judges who have done the same in other states. Crabtree also placed his ruling on hold while the legal battle plays out.

Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper has asked Suthers, a Republican, not to appeal.

"The decision on marriage by Judge Crabtree puts Colorado on the right side of history," Hickenlooper said.

In the Boulder case, Hartman found that issuing marriage licenses was harmless and an acceptable form of civil disobedience. But he required that all couples be warned their marriage could lack legal value if a court later upholds Colorado's ban.

His decision left clerks around the state trying to figure out what to do.

Mesa County Clerk Sheila Reiner noted that clerks must weigh the risk of issuing licenses that might become invalid with violating people's rights by declining to do so.

"It's sort of a rock and a hard place," she said.

Ortiz said he read all three of the rulings affecting Colorado, but the Boulder ruling persuaded him to issue the licenses, especially its reference to St. Augustine's belief that an unjust law is no law at all.

"The scale of justice started leaning toward individual rights for me," said Ortiz, who married his friends Bob Hudson and Mike Lawson.

Same-sex marriage is legal in 19 states and the District of Columbia, but it's in limbo in much of the rest of the nation.

There is no guarantee the nation's highest court will take the case when it returns in October. But situations like the one in Colorado add to the pressure for a final, definitive ruling on gay marriage in the U.S.

This story is part of our special report: "Gay Marriage". Want to read more? Here's the full list.