Gay Marriage States 2013: Pennsylvania Clerk Ordered to Stop Issuing Same-Sex Marriage Licenses
A Philadelphia-area county clerk has been issuing same-sex marriage licenses ever since the Defense of Marriage act was ruled unconstitutional earlier this summer, but a judge ordered him to stop the practice this week.
D. Bruce Hanes told CNN in August that he reviewed the state constitution and concluded that he could start issuing marriage licenses to everyone, regardless of sexual orientation.
However, in what was a very questionable way of describing it, the State Department of Health said the marriage licenses would be in "direct defiance" of the 1996 gay marriage ban and "risks causing serious and limitless harm to the public."
"We've either got to change the constitution -- permit discrimination on the basis of sex, permit civil rights to be frustrated -- or change the interpretation of that marriage act or change the marriage act. You can't have it both ways," Hanes said in August.
As a result of the U.S. v. Windsor case, Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act was struck down by the Supreme Court "as a deprivation of the liberty of the person protected by the Fifth Amendment"
The case brought national attention, and President Barack Obama released a statement while he was in the air en route to an African tour.
"I applaud the Supreme Court's decision to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act," he said. "This was discrimination enshrined in law. It treated loving, committed gay and lesbian couples as a separate and lesser class of people. The Supreme Court has righted that wrong, and our country is better off for it."
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