A day after urging other county clerks to join her in refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses, the Van Buren County clerk reversed her position and said she would issue them upon request, an attorney said Wednesday.
Document set
Gay marriage in Arkansas
- Marriage-license lawsuit order
- Opinion/concurrence on justices in gay-marriage case
- Maples motion to dismiss new case
- Leslie Rutledge brief on behalf of state
- Wagoner amended motion
- Chief Justice Jim Hannah recusal letter
- Justice Rhonda Wood recusal letter
- Justice Paul Danielson recusal
- Plaintiffs' response to request for second oral arguments
- Plaintiffs' motion for lifting of stay
- Legislative roll call — Motion to suspend rules
- Interim resolution in support of Amendment 83
- Arkansas Supreme Court stays judge's gay-marriage ruling pending appeal
- Plaintiffs respond to state's request for stay
- McDaniel again asks Supreme Court for stay of gay-marriage ruling
- Judge Piazza May 15 final order on gay marriage bans
- Order denying defendants' motion for immediate stay
- Gay-marriage case plaintiffs' motion for clarification of judgment
- Piazza final order on gay marriage nunc pro tunc
- Piazza notice to attorneys of clarified order
- Court declines stay of gay-marriage ruling
- Piazza strikes down Arkansas' same-sex marriage ban
Pam Bradford, a first-term clerk in Van Buren County -- the courthouse is in Clinton -- had emailed Arkansas clerks and other elected officials Tuesday to say that neither she nor her office would grant the licenses.
In that email, she wrote, "Other than this being against my Religious beliefs and 1st Amendment Rights, the US Supreme Court has overstepped their boundaries."
She urged the email's recipients to "stand with me" and to sign a "marriage declaration" she had attached.
Bradford did not return phone messages or an email seeking comment Wednesday.
Little Rock attorney Mike Rainwater, whose law firm handles court cases on behalf of some Arkansas counties, said he had talked with clerks around the state about the issue. He said he talked with Bradford on Wednesday and gave her "legal information" but not "legal advice."
"We talked about what the law provides and what her [Bradford's] legal options are," he said.
Later Wednesday, Rainwater said, "She called me and said, 'After thinking about it, I've decided we are, in fact, going to issue marriage licenses to all couples, including same-sex couples.'" He said she had decided it was her "obligation."
Van Buren County had not received any requests for same-sex marriage licenses as of Wednesday, Rainwater said.
State Desk on 07/09/2015