Kentucky Has Until March 20 to Recognize Gay Marriages

Kentucky Has Until March 20 to Recognize Gay Marriages

Kentucky has until March 20th to figure out how to implement a ruling that requires the state to recognize same-sex marriages performed in states where they are legal. U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn II said that while the delay extends “an unconstitutional policy,” it allows the state “proper time to administratively prepare for compliance.”

The delay was in response to a request by Assistant Attorney General Clay Barkley, who argued that the state needs to meet with local and state agencies to see what laws, rules and policies will be affected and to ensure that all 120 counties respond consistently.

But Laura Landenwich, an attorney for the plaintiffs, told Heyburn that same-sex couples could be harmed by a delay.

“The state already knows how to treat married couples, and all it has to do is treat these couples like married couples,” she said in an interview. Couples trying to get their names changed on their driver’s licenses have been turned away. A county clerk denied a couple’s request to change their deed to say they owned it was a married couple.

Heyburn, who was appointed to the bench by President George H.W. Bush in 1992 on the recommendation of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), is the first federal judge nominated by a Republican president to rule for same-sex marriage proponents in a case in Kentucky.

He ruled Feb. 12 that Kentucky’s anti-gay laws and its state DOMA violate the constitutional guarantee of equal protection under the law, but it only applies to couples married elsewhere. Two couples have asked Heyburn to allow couples to marry in Kentucky. That part of the case is expected to be hear before year’s end.

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