(TOPEKA, Kan., AP) — Kansas’ attorney general has asked the state Supreme Court to block same-sex marriage licenses, hours after a court office in the state’s most populous county issued one, believed to be the first in the state, to a gay couple.
The petition asks for an immediate order blocking the licenses, saying a judge exceeded his authority in ordering clerks and other judges to no longer deny marriage applications from gay couples. The Kansas Constitution bans gay marriage.
Attorney General Derek Schmidt told The Associated Press he wants to have the legal issues resolved in an orderly fashion.
District court Chief Judge Kevin Moriarty had issued his order after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear appeals from five other states seeking to preserve their gay-marriage bans.