AG Calls San Diego County Clerk's Gay Marriage Petition Improper
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California Attorney General Kamala Harris says the elected clerk of San Diego County is improperly using the state's legal system to try to prevent same-sex couples from getting married.
Harris argued in court papers filed Monday that county clerk Ernest Dronenburg Jr. picked the wrong venue when he asked the California Supreme Court to declare that gay marriages remain illegal in all but two of the state's 58 counties.
She says the state court does not have authority to limit a federal trial judge's order declaring California's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriages to be unconstitutional and prohibiting its enforcement.
The U.S. Supreme Court let that order stand last month, clearing the way for gay marriages to resume.
Harris says Dronenburg is trying only "to create legal uncertainty where none actually exists."
Dronenburg's lawyers have until Aug. 9 to respond.
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