Even though a federal judge had ruled that the ban(s) on marriages of same-sex couples in Kansas is unconstitutional, the Kansas Supreme Court had already stayed marriages in one county there -- Johnson County. Today, they lifted the stay. The mandamus proceedings are on hold pending the resolution of the federal marriage equality case. And, they declined to issue any further orders with regard to marriage equality stating that it was up to the federal courts at this point. My guess is that we will see all the counties in Kansas marrying same-sex couples very soon. We'll see.
For now, this is what Equality Kansas is reporting:
So what does all this mean? It means that, for now at least, we continue as we have - county by county. Here's the latest list of counties that we have confirmed are issuing marriage licenses:
Brown
Chase
Cherokee
Cloud
Cowley
Crawford
Douglas
Jewell
Johnson
Labette
Lincoln
Lyon
Mitchell
Republic
Riley
Sedgwick
Shawnee
Washington
Wyandotte
If you do NOT live in one of those counties, you may still go to any one of them and apply for a marriage license. After three days, you can go back to the originating courthouse, pick up your license, and get married ANYWHERE in Kansas. Your signed license must be filed in the courthouse that issued it.
We will still have difficulty getting state and local government agencies to recognize our marriages, whether performed in Kansas or out of state.
In addition, the Fourth Circuit has denied the motion for a stay pending appeal from South Carolina state officials. The AG intends to request the stay from the SCOTUS (good luck with that).
5:37 PM PT: South Carolina officials HAVE now requested a stay from the SCOTUS.