Colorado's Supreme Court ordered the Denver County clerk on Friday to stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples pending the resolution of an appeal by the state's attorney general, according to The Associated Press.
Denver County Clerk Debra Johnson began handing out the permits to gay couples on July 10, hours after a state judge backed the clerk in Boulder, another Colorado county, who has issued more than 120 of the licenses since late June, the AP reported.
Friday's ruling did not cover the clerk in Boulder, nor her counterpart in Pueblo County, the third county which has been issuing marriage permits to gay couples, according to the AP.
The two-page ruling noted that a judge who earlier this month ruled the ban was unconstitutional put his decision on hold until it was appealed, meaning the definition of marriage approved by Colorado voters in 2006, as between one man and one woman, remains active, the AP reported.
The court's decision only named Johnson and a clerk in another county who hasn't issued licenses because they were part of the lawsuit on the constitutionality of the state ban, according to the AP. Suthers is also appealing that ruling to the state Supreme Court, a process that will take months.
Nancy Leong, a law professor at the University of Denver, said the ruling does not force clerks in Boulder or Pueblo counties to stop issuing licenses, the AP reported. "The court can only do what the plaintiffs ask them, and these plaintiffs only asked them to stay Denver/Adams," she said.
In a statement Friday afternoon, Suthers said: "The message should be clear enough. We assume that all the state's clerks will heed the Supreme Court's direction without requiring more wasteful litigation," according to the AP.
Clerks in Boulder and Pueblo, however, said they would continue issuing licenses, the AP reported. "At this time we are evaluating what the implications are for Pueblo County. For the time being we will continue to issue licenses," Pueblo's clerk, Gilbert Ortiz, said in a tweet.
