Nevada Begins Issuing Marriage Licenses To Gay Couples

Nevada officials in one county have started issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples, two days after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco struck down restrictive marriage bans in Nevada and Idaho.

The delay stemmed from an order issued by Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.

Nevada officials dropped their defense of the ban in February, leaving the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage to argue its merits before the appeals court.

Idaho asked for and Kennedy granted an emergency stay in the ruling. Later, the high court clarified that the order only applied to Idaho, not Nevada.

A second roadblock emerged on Wednesday, when Monte Stewart, the attorney representing the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage, filed motions with the Supreme Court and the Ninth Circuit seeking to set the court's ruling aside. The filings were withdrawn on Thursday without comment, though the Supreme Court last year refused intervenor status to a third party in a similar case challenging California's Proposition 8.

Overjoyed brides and grooms rushed to government offices after the Ninth Circuit again declared that its ruling is “in full force and effect.”

Shortly after 4 PM, Carson City Clerk-Recorder Alan Glover told the Nevada Appeal that he had been given the go ahead.

“If somebody comes in, we're going to issue them a license,” he said.

Other clerks, however, said that they would wait for a judge to issue an order barring enforcement of the ban.

UPDATE: Judge James C. Mahan, a federal judge in Las Vegas, has signed the injunction, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported, officially making Nevada the 27^th state with marriage equality.