PA Sues To Stop Same-Sex Marriages In Montgomery County

The Pennsylvania Department of Public Health today filed a state lawsuit to prevent Montgomery County and its clerk, D. Bruce Hanes, from issuing marriage licences to same-sex couples, the AP reports. Hanes first started granting marriage liscenses to same-sex couples last week, compelled he said by the ruling in United States v. Windsor and a desire to be "on the right side of history." While Pennsylvania does not ban same-sex marriage in its constitution as many other states do, the state did pass a law in 1996 that defines marriage as being between a man and a woman and goes even further in not recognizing same-sex unions codified out of state. It is this law that Hanes, an independently elected Democrat, is accused of "repeatedly and continuously" flouting in the suit filed by the state. Meanwhile, Montgomery County solicitor Ray McGarry has insisted that the county will continue to issue marriage licenses to gay couples and believes the state's lawsuit "has serious flaws." That lawsuit seems to be particularly concerned with illegal requests for benefits and the alleged "administrative and legal chaos that is likely to flow from the clerk's unlawful practice of issuing marriage licenses to those who are not permitted under Pennsylvania law to marry."

Anti-marriage equality Pennsylvania protestors: restricting marriage to opposite-sex couples is ‘just discrimination’

In the wake of the last week’s decision by D. Bruce Hanes, the Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Register of Wills, to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples despite a state ban on marriage equality, conservatives in the state have been up in arms about the county official’s move.

As Think Progress reports, a group of around 20 members of the Pro-Life Coalition of PA has taken to protesting outside the Montgomery County Courthouse against Hanes’s decision.  Main Line Media News has more:

“It’s not about love. It’s about children,” said Michael McMonagle, president of the Pro-Life Coalition. “There’s a thing called just discrimination. For example, should blind people be allowed to vote? Of course they should, because not being able to see has nothing to do with having the right to vote. Should blind people get a driver’s license? Of course not, because being able to see is essential to being able to drive.

“Heterosexuality is essential to the meaning of marriage. Civil government has an interest in producing future children. It’s utter arrogance to think that we can redefine the institution that has been the bedrock of all society throughout history.”

In addition to stopping Hanes, McMonagle said the coalition came out to push two other main points — to urge District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman to press charges against Hanes for breaking the law and for Gov. Tom Corbett to “zealously defend Pennsylvania’s marriage law.”

Marriages between same-sex couples, McMonagle said, are “inherently unequal because [they] cannot produce children.”

As of the end of last week, 26 couples had obtained licenses from Hanes’s office.  Raymond McGarry, the Montgomery County solicitor, told Main Line Media News that he is unaware of any legal actions to stop Hanes from issuing such licenses.  The Register of Wills says he has no plans of reversing his decision.

Earlier this month, the ACLU announced a federal court challenge to bring marriage equality to the Keystone State.  The next day, Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane, a Democrat, told reporters that she would not defend the ban in court.

Pennsylvania Has First Gay Wedding As County Defies Same-Sex Marriage Ban

Pennsylvania is currently the only Northeastern state with a same-sex marriage ban on the books. Although you would never know it if you were to attend the wedding of Alicia Terrizzi and Loreen Bloodgood, or apply for a marriage license in Montgomery County, just outside of Philadelphia. Terrizzi and Bloodgood are one of two couples who have been granted marriage licenses in the county after it decided to defy Pennsylvania's same-sex marriage ban. The country Register of Wills has also said that he will approve any other same-sex couples applying for a marriage license.

The two licenses come just one day after Montgomery County officials announced that they are willing to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples yesterday. Montgomery County Register of Wills D. Bruce Hanes, an independently elected Democrat, told reporters that he wishes to be "on the right side of history and the law." He also cited Windsor v. United States, the Supreme Court case that gutted DOMA, as well as the ACLU's current suit in federal court to overturn Pennsylvania's same-sex marriage ban, a case that Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane has announced that she will not defend. Hanes told reporters that he was actually willing to grant the first same-sex marriage license in Pennsylvania's history one day prior, but that the couple applying decided to withdraw their application after speaking with lawyers from the ACLU.

Molly Tack-Hooper, a spokesperson for the ACLU, noted that this is not the first time that a county has defied a state's same-sex marriage ban:

"We know how it has played out in a few other states; we don’t know how it might turn out in Pennsylvania. Gay and lesbian couples seeking marriage licenses in Montgomery County should be aware that there might be uncertainty about the legal statuses of those marriages for a while because unfortunately in other states, governments have later invalidated the marriages."

It is not yet clear whether the same thing will happen to these two couples. Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett has not yet announced whether he will defend the lawsuit, and has refused to comment thus far. Hanes also maintains that "I have no knowledge of anything prohibiting me from doing it. If another couple came to me I would treat them exactly the same. I would approve it." The American Family Association of Pennsylvania did offer an opinion, however, written by president Diane Gramley, and addressed Hanes directly.

“Montgomery County’s Register of Wills is an attorney, thus should know the law, and as an elected row officer he has sworn to uphold the law. Apparently he is following the lead of Attorney General Kathleen Kane who has said she would not defend Pennsylvania’s Defense of Marriage Act even though the job she was elected to fill includes defending the laws of the Commonwealth. If he can’t uphold the law and issue marriage licenses only to those who can legally marry in Pennsylvania, he needs to tender his resignation.”

County Commission Chairman Josh Shapiro told the press that "marriage equality will come to Pennsylvania. He says it's just a question of how long it will take." He also said that he is willing to defend Hanes' decision in court. Meanwhile, Alicia Terrizzi told reporters that she and her new spouse, Bloodgood, were not looking to be pioneers by getting married. Instead, they "simply want to take advantage of the opportunity offered by Montgomery County officials."