A state court Friday ordered Oregon to register 3,000 controversial gay marriages conducted last spring, though their ultimate fate rests with the state supreme court, officials said.
“We will not appeal” the court’s decision, Attorney General Hardy Myers said in a statement. “Our primary goal is to get a final ruling from the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of Oregon’s marriage statues as expeditiously as possible.”
Portland’s Multnomah County on March 3 began issuing marriage licenses to gay couples, one of several U.S. municipalities to do so.
Opponents sued and in April Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Frank Bearden ordered a temporary halt to the weddings.
The main lawsuit, which will determine if the state constitution prohibits same-sex marriage, is currently at the State Court of Appeals and will likely move quickly to the Oregon Supreme Court.
But Myers noted that although the judge Friday ordered the state to register the licenses, “he also stated that the licenses are not valid unless specifically declared valid by the Oregon Supreme Court.”
Opponents of gay marriage in Oregon are also readying a November ballot measure that would rewrite the state’s constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman.
The Defense of Marriage Coalition in late June turned in over 244,000 signatures supporting the initiative, more than twice the 100,840 signatures required to get it on the ballot.
