DENVER — The fact that Coloradans can now obtain same-sex marriage licenses in some select counties — but not others — certainly isn’t typical.
“It’s not the ideal situation, it leaves the couples who are marrying with some uncertainty,” said Nancy Leong, an Associate Professor at the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law. “I think it creates the possibility of different practices in different counties, but I think that that could potentially be sustainable for a year.”
That’s the amount of time that Leong and many other legal experts expect the Supreme Court to take before finally hearing and issuing a decision on gay marriage that will permanently resolve the questions that remain after the Court’s landmark ruling last summer.
“It will be argued, probably, next spring and we’ll have a decision around this time next year,” Leong said.
In the meantime, Leong says the Colorado attorney general will likely try again to stop select counties from issuing licenses by, this time, turning to the Colorado Supreme Court.
“I would think that he would probably seek some kind of temporary or an emergency restraining order,” Leong said. “But that’s something we’ll know in the next few days.”
But Leong says there’s no telling if the Colorado Supreme Court would even grant a restraining order or a stay, especially after a Boulder judge ruled Thursday that the state fell far short of proving that issuing same-sex marriage licenses is doing harm to the state.
“(The judge) said the state has completely failed to show that there is irreparable harm,” Leong said. “I think just having a judge going on record and say that is something that is going to be potentially empowering to other jurisdictions.”
That could mean even more counties opening their doors to same-sex couples in the short term.
“It may be a whole new kind of destination wedding,” Leong said.