Judge Alan Malott
Judge Alan Malott of New Mexico's Second Judicial District
ruled Monday that state law does not prohibit marriage between same-sex couples and ordered the Bernalillo County clerk to issue marriage licenses. Last Thursday, District Judge Sarah Singleton also came down for marriage equality when she
issued an order to Santa Fe County Clerk Geraldine Salazar as a result of a lawsuit filed by two Santa Fe men. Earlier in the week, Doña Ana County Clerk Lynn Ellins began issuing licenses to same-sex couples after he said the state law didn't prohibit it:
The [Malott] ruling concerns a lawsuit filed on behalf of three lesbian couples who said the state constitution has no explicit ban on marriage rights for same-sex couples.
Bernalillo County will start issuing licenses to gay couples at 8 a.m. on Tuesday. The clerk's computers must be reconfigured.
After the Doña Ana clerk began issuing licenses, some Republican lawmakers
said they would file a lawsuit because, they said, county clerks cannot make law. Republican Sen. William Sharer of Farmington said more than two dozen GOP lawmakers have agreed to join the lawsuit.
It likely will be filed with the state Supreme Court, but Sharer said lawyers were trying to decide the best legal strategy.
Neither Republican Gov. Susana Martinez nor Democratic Attorney General Gary King, who plans to run for her seat next year, indicated they planned to do anything to try to halt the practice as cases testing the legality of same-sex marriage work their way through the state Supreme Court.
A key element of any decision in that case if and when it is filed may well come down to a sentence in
Section 18 of the New Mexico constitution: "Equality of rights under law shall not be denied on account of the sex of any person."