Montgomery County Register of Wills sued over gay marriage licenses

[MadrasT]

Health Department sues Montco Register of Wills...

NORRISTOWN — The Pennsylvania Department of Health is suing Montgomery County Register of Wills D. Bruce Hanes for issuing same-sex marriage licenses.

The health department issued a Writ of Mandamus Tuesday afternoon, directing Hanes and the orphan’s court to “cease and desist” the issuance of the licenses, calling it, “indicating falsely that marriages between individuals of the same gender have been lawfully performed by a person authorized under the law to perform marriages. The clerk’s actions are in direct defiance of the express policy of the commonwealth that ‘marriage shall be between one man and one woman.’”

Montco says "fuck you"...

The county has issued its own statement, defending Hanes’ actions.

“While it comes as no surprise that the Corbett administration has filed an action seeking to enjoin marriage equality in Montgomery County, the petition filed today in Commonwealth Court by the state Department of Health has serious flaws,” said Montgomery County Solicitor Ray McGarry. “Montgomery County will be filing a response shortly. In the meantime, the Register of Wills office will continue to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.”

(This makes me curious about a number of things. What does the Department of Health have to do with anything? Why are they the ones filing the suit? Do they think gay marriage is a threat to public health in Pennsylvania?)

This whole thing is a very interesting turn of events and I hope it leads to our dumbass "one man to one woman marriage" law being tossed out.

Edit to add link: http://www.dailylocal.com/article/20130730/NEWS01/130739958/montgomery-county-register-of-wills-sued-over-gay-marriage-licenses#full_story

[kestrel91316]

1. State Departments of Health are typically the state agency with

authority to issue birth certificates, death certificates, marriage records, and divorce records via their vital records division. It varies from state to state.

[MadrasT]

2. I did not know that.

Thanks.

[kestrel91316]

3. I'm the family genealogist - that's how I know. Always having to get non-certified copies

of vital records for research purposes from one of about 45 states or another.

[Tree-Hugger]

4. But...but...but...

I thought the state of PA was so poor and that's why we had to cut aid to poor people, mentally disabled folks and education. Right? Now we have money to sue MontCo for issuing marriage licenses?

[ShadowLiberal]

5. Heard some audio of the Montco Legislature debating these lawsuits a few days ago

A few days ago I heard audio of the Montgomery county commissioners or whatever the legislature is technically called, during a public meeting where they were discussing the legal battle. There was only one elected republican in the group anyway. He was strongly criticizing the Montgomery country people for giving out marriage licenses and basically saying they've make a big mess, and was saying that from a pure legal perspective he didn't think they had a leg to stand on against the state.

Yet when pressed by others to state his position on gay marriage, the elected Republican REFUSED to take a stand on gay marriage. He's too scared to admit he's opposed to gay marriage because he knows it's a political anvil to his political career if he does.

What makes this even more incredible is that until just a few years ago Montgomery Country had been ruled by Republicans for over a century. I believe most of the local Montgomery County judges are all republicans to (they're elected positions).

If Republicans are starting to get too scared to openly take a position against gay marriage in PA, then even if we lose in court, it's only a matter of time till we can win legislatively.