The issue remains a divisive one in Florida. Even before Hinkle issued his clarifying order on Thursday, several county clerks had announced that, at least in part to avoid marrying same-sex couples, they would stop performing courthouse wedding ceremonies entirely. The clerks would still need to issue marriage licenses to the couples, or, as Hinkle warned in his ruling, face lawsuits.
“It was decided as a team, as an office, this would be what we do so that there wouldn’t be any discrimination,” Ronnie Fussell, clerk of Duval County, told The Florida Times Union in Jacksonville Wednesday. The paper reported that the clerks of four other Florida counties also announced that their offices would no longer perform courthouse ceremonies. “The easiest way is to not do them at all.”
In his original ruling, Hinkle struck down a 2008 amendment to the state constitution defining marriage as the legal union between one man and one woman. But he issued a temporary stay, which expires Jan. 5, to give the state an opportunity to appeal.
“The defendants did that. They lost,” Hinkle wrote in his four-page order.