Florida?

The question about marriage equality in Florida isn't over the lifting of the stay. The question is whether various clerks will issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The Florida Association of Clerks and Comptrollers says that the lifting of the stay does not erase the ban from the books. Therefore issuing a license to a same-sex couple remains a criminal act. Clerks who violate that act may face up to a year in jail.

I'm not sure what legal technicality this group is waiting for. A federal judge says the law is bad and cannot be enforced once his stay is lifted. The Circuit Court and the Supremes haven't changed that. Will they be satisfied only when the 11th Circuit or the Supremes rule? Are they hung up because an unenforceable law is on the books and they want to try to enforce it anyway? As I've written about before, laws that ban gay sex still exist in several states (including Michigan) even though the Supremes ruled them unenforceable more than a decade ago. Even so, Louisiana uses its law to intimidate gays, no matter that the case gets thrown out when it gets before a judge.

So this association of clerks pounces on a clerk who issues a license to a same-sex couple. The clerk would be backed by the ACLU or Human Rights Campaign. And a responsible judge would throw the case out. Still, there is the hassle and intimidation factors, which might restrain a few clerks.

I have a small correction to what I wrote yesterday. According to the article linked to above the stay is lifted on January 5th, but marriages don't begin until the 6th.