July 01, 2014 11:30 AM UTC

AG Same-Sex Marriage Crackdown Coming?

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• by: Colorado Pols

TUESDAY UPDATE #3: Buzzfeed now reporting that the Attorney General will go to court tomorrow:

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers’s office has told Boulder County officials that they plan to go to court Wednesday if Boulder County Clerk Hillary Hall does not stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Suthers’s office responded Tuesday to county officials’ request for additional time to consider a proposal to allow the state’s supreme court to resolve the question of whether Hall can issue the marriage licenses. Colorado Solicitor General Dan Domenico wrote that the county could have until July 10 to respond to the proposal only if Hall stopped issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples during that time.

“If she elects to continue after today, I am afraid we will be forced to take legal action,” Domenico wrote.

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TUESDAY UPDATE #2: Denver Post–Boulder County defies the Colorado Attorney General's office, continues to issue same-sex marriage licenses:

The Boulder County clerk continued issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples Tuesday after a deadline imposed by the state's Attorney General…

Hall's office ignored the deadline and continued to issue licenses Tuesday afternoon.

"Same-sex licenses are legal and just licenses and we will continue to issue them," Hall said in a statement released after the deadline passed.

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TUESDAY UPDATE: Boulder Daily Camera, Clerk Hillary Hall and the Boulder County attorney plead for more time from the Attorney General's office as same-sex marriages continue:

With today's noon deadline looming, Boulder County officials say they want more time — 10 more days, in fact — to consider the state's proposal to let the Colorado Supreme Court decide whether County Clerk Hillary Hall has the legal authority to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples…

Hall, however, said in a Monday night statement that "because this is such an important issue we have requested additional time from the Attorney General's Office to review their proposal. We hope they give us the time requested to fully review their proposal with our legal counsel."

Boulder County Attorney Ben Pearlman wrote the solicitor general on Monday that Hall "recognizes important concerns you raise in your letter and appreciates your offer of compromise, but she has found one and a half days insufficient for both her office and mine to consider and formulate a response."

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UPDATE: Just as we were clicking "publish," the Denver Post's Jordan Steffen reports:

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers has given the Boulder County Clerk's office until noon on Tuesday to stop issuing same-sex marriage licenses or face further action from his office.

If the office stops issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples before that deadline, the AG's office is offering to file a joint request to the Colorado Supreme Court, asking the court to decide if the clerk has legal authority to issue the licenses…

Suthers told The Denver Post his office has not decided what actions may be taken, but they will discuss possibilities if Hall does not stop issuing licenses before the deadline.

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As the Longmont Times-Call's Whitney Bryen reports, same-sex marriage licenses continue to be issued by Boulder County, acting in the wake of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling last week striking down the stat of Utah's gay marriage ban:

Late Wednesday afternoon, Boulder County Clerk and Recorder Hillary Hall announced that she would issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after a 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling found Utah's gay marriage ban violated the Constitution.

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers has said any licenses issued by Boulder County to same-sex couples are not valid, but he has not moved to stop Hall from issuing them.

The Grand Junction Sentinel's Charles Ashby reports that the Colorado Association of County Clerks is advising their members to wait for the automatic stay on the 10th Circuit's decision is lifted by the U.S. Supreme Court–either by upholding their decision or declining to take up the case:

[Mesa County Clerk Sheila] Reiner, who is president of the Colorado County Clerks Association, said several clerks in the state are discussing what to do with the issue, but the association is advising them that nothing has changed when it comes to the right of gays to marry.

“We are consulting our association attorneys and clerks are consulting their county attorneys to get a read on this and keep close watch,” she said. “The recommendation is to hold off.”

But in Boulder, Clerk Hillary Hall insists she is acting legally and issuing valid licenses.

"That's their opinion. We disagree with it," Hall said Thursday morning. "We will be here issuing marriage licenses until a Colorado court or the Supreme Court tells us to desist."

…The Boulder clerk's office issued two same-sex marriage licenses on Wednesday and 32 on Thursday, including to state Sen. Jessie Ulibarri, D-Westminster, and his partner.

Legally, Clerk Hall is operating on an interpretation of the court's ruling, reportedly from Boulder County attorneys, which claims the decision was binding on all states in the 10th Circuit, which includes Colorado–but the automatic stay of enforcement of that decision only applied to the state of Utah. We'll admit we haven't heard anyone we know with legal expertise back that opinion up. But politically, Hall is acting to right what the appellate court clearly identified as a grave moral wrong. Public opinion has swung full circle since the passage of Colorado's Amendment 43 eight years ago, and a solid majority of Coloradans now poll in favor of marriage equality. That we expect is a big reason why Suthers didn't move immediately to halt these licenses last Wednesday when they began to be issued.

The situation is further complicated by the position of Republican Attorney General candidate and Suther's chief deputy AG Cynthia Coffman, who needs to appeal to the same statewide electorate that now strongly supports marriage equality to win this year. With Democratic opponent Don Quick making this issue a major plank in his campaign, Coffman risks collateral damage to her own election chances if Boulder's "rogue" marriage license story continues to escalate.

We'll update when and if the other shoe drops.