News (USA)

Justice Alito denies clerk’s bid to halt same-sex marriage in Pennsylvania

Justice Alito denies clerk’s bid to halt same-sex marriage in Pennsylvania

WASHINGTON — A U.S. Supreme Court justice has rejected a Pennsylvania county clerk’s bid to stop gay marriages in the state while she tries to get standing in a legal case to stop them permanently.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito

Without comment, Justice Samuel Alito on Wednesday rejected an appeal by Schuylkill County Orphans’ Court Clerk Theresa Santai-Gaffney. The clerk can appeal to another justice, however.

Same-sex marriage became legal in Pennsylvania on May 20 when U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III struck down a state ban against the practice. Gov. Tom Corbett’s administration decided not to appeal the decision.

The county clerk, however, then tried to intervene. The federal judge and a federal appellate court rebuffed her attempts, prompting her appeal to the Supreme Court.

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