Gay marriage: Mont. ban overturned; SC issues first licenses

HELENA, Mont. (AP) -- Gay couples were expected to line up for marriage licenses Thursday morning at county courthouses across Montana after a federal judge tossed out the state's ban on same-sex marriage. Meanwhile, a judge issued the first gay marriage licenses in South Carolina Wednesday. <br /> <br /> At least two counties - Missoula and Park - started issuing marriage licenses to gay couples Wednesday afternoon, while court clerks elsewhere in the state geared up to do so Thursday.<br /> <br /> U.S. District Judge Brian Morris ruled Montana's constitutional amendment limiting marriage to a man and a woman violates the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.<br /> <br /> "This Court recognizes that not everyone will celebrate this outcome," Morris wrote. "This decision overturns a Montana Constitutional amendment approved by the voters of Montana. Yet the United States Constitution exists to protect disfavored minorities from the will of the majority."<br /> <br /> The state's Republican attorney general Tim Fox plans to appeal, but he said he wouldn't ask to block marriages in the meantime.<br /> <br /> "It is the attorney general's sworn duty to uphold and defend Montana's constitution until such time as there is no further review or no appeal can be made in a court of law," Fox said.<br /> <br /> In Montana's most populous county, Yellowstone, the clerk of district court said her office is ready to issue licenses. "For my office, nothing will be different than any other day," Kristie Lee Boelter said.<br /> <br /> Also Thursday, the ACLU is holding celebrations at county courthouses in Billings, Bozeman, Butte, Great Falls, Helena and Missoula. The group will have officiants there for couples who wish to marry immediately, ACLU spokeswoman Amy Cannata said.<br /> <br /> "It should be the biggest celebration of marriage in Montana, and I hope everyone comes down to mark this incredible moment in time," she said.<br /> <br /> The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in September that Idaho and Nevada's bans are unconstitutional. Montana is part of the 9th Circuit, and Morris cited the appeals court's opinion in his ruling.<br /> <br /> "The time has come for Montana to follow all the other states within the Ninth Circuit and recognize that laws that ban same-sex marriage violate the constitutional right of same-sex couples to equal protection of the laws," he wrote.<br /> <br /> Four same-sex couples filed a lawsuit in May challenging Montana's ban. The plaintiffs included Angie and Tonya Rolando.<br /> <br /> "Love won today," Angie Rolando said.<br /> <br /> The couple said they plan obtain a wedding license as soon as their courthouse opens Thursday.<br /> <br /> Among the first Montana couples to get their licenses on Wednesday were Amy Wagner, 56, and Karen Langebeck, 48, of Livingston, who have been together for 22 years.<br /> <br /> Wagner said they have been closely following the news about the issue. After hearing about the ruling at 2 p.m. Montana time, they got on the road to get their license. "Being able to get married and introduce Karen as my wife - that's a big deal. Now I have a way to describe this relationship that everybody understands," Wagner said.<br /> <br /> The couple plan to return to Park County District Court on Thursday to get married by a judge.<br /> <br /> Montana and two other states, Kansas and South Carolina, continued their legal fight against same-sex marriage despite rulings from federal appeals courts that oversee them that concluded gay and lesbian couples have the right to wed.<br /> <br /> Before Wednesday, same-sex couples could marry in 32 states, parts of Kansas and Missouri and the District of Columbia.<br /> <br /> Montana Gov. Steve Bullock said in a statement his administration is taking the appropriate steps to ensure legally married same-sex couples are recognized and afforded the same rights and responsibilities of all married Montanans.<br /> <br /> In 2004 Montana voters approved a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Such bans have fallen around the country since the Supreme Court last year struck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act.<br /> <br /> Republican Rep. Steve Daines, who was elected to the U.S. Senate earlier this month, was the sole member of the state's congressional delegation to express disappointment in the ruling, saying an "unelected federal judge" had ignored Montanans' wishes.<br /> <br /> SOUTH CAROLINA <br /> <br /> A judge issued the first gay marriage licenses and a couple was married in South Carolina on Wednesday, even as the state attorney general asked the U.S. Supreme Court to step in and block the unions.<br /> <br /> Judge Irvin Condon's office issued six licenses in the first 90 minutes the Charleston County Probate Court office was open and one of the couples, Kristin Anderson and Kayla Bennett, exchanged vows outside the office.<br /> <br /> "We want to get in before they change their minds and pull the rug out again," Anderson told local media outlets, referring to the ongoing legal battles over gay marriage.<br /> <br /> Before Wednesday, same-sex couples could marry in 32 states, parts of Kansas and Missouri, and the District of Columbia. Also Wednesday, a federal judge in Montana ruled the state's ban was unconstitutional.<br /> <br /> In South Carolina, another marriage license went to Colleen Condon and her partner Nichols Bleckley, who sued the state. Ruling in that case, U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel last week threw out the same-sex marriage ban in the South Carolina Constitution.<br /> <br /> The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused on Tuesday to put Gergel's order on hold. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson then asked Chief Justice John Roberts of the U.S. Supreme Court to block such marriages while the state appeals, Wilson's spokesman Mark Powell said. The Supreme Court did not immediately rule on the request.<br /> <br /> Attorney John Nichols, representing the probate judge, said the licenses could be issued because of a Tuesday decision in another federal case.<br /> <br /> There, U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs in Columbia ruled in favor of Highway Patrol Trooper Katherine Bradacs and U.S. Air Force retiree Tracie Goodwin, who sued to have the state to recognize their marriage performed in Washington, D.C.<br /> <br /> Childs ruled the state's failure to recognize their marriage was unconstitutional.<br /> <br /> Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of a 4th Circuit decision allowing same-sex marriage in Virginia, opening the way for same-sex marriages in other states. South Carolina continued to defend its same-sex marriage ban and was the only state in the circuit not permitting them.<br /> <br /> At that time, probate judges in two South Carolina counties began accepting applications for same-sex marriage licenses. The South Carolina Supreme Court quickly ordered that no licenses be issued before a decision in the Columbia case.<br /> <br /> On Wednesday, the state's high court lifted its stay, and said Childs' decision resolved the case.<br /> <br /> Powell said the attorney general is reviewing Childs' order.<br /> <br /> Warren Redman-Gress, the executive director of the Alliance for Full Acceptance, said a gay couple married in New York applied Wednesday in Charleston to use their married name on their drivers' licenses and were turned down.<br /> <br /> "I think people are going to keep seeing those things happening," he said. "This has ramifications for all different parts of the state."

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