Boone Co. clerk says no to any marriage licenses Friday

A Northern Kentucky clerk said no to all marriage licenses Friday after the U.S. Supreme Court declared that all states are required to marry gay couples and recognize marriages from other states.

Boone County Clerk Kenny Brown, a Republican, said he was figuring out what he had to do to implement the decision.

"We are digesting this, trying to understand what we have to do," Brown said Friday afternoon. "We are reviewing everything right now."

But after the landmark decision on Friday, Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear and Attorney General Jack Conway ordered clerks in the commonwealth to issue licenses for same-sex marriages.

Beshear sent a letter to all 120 county clerks telling them the Department of Libraries and Archives would send them a gender neutral form along with instructions on how to use it. He told the clerks to consult with their county attorneys with specific questions, but said he knew they will respect the rule of law.

Brown acknowledged the state had sent a new form, but said he'd have to figure out how to make it standard for the Boone County clerk's office.

He added later that the Boone County Clerk's Office had no requests for a same-sex marriage license on Friday.

Brown told The Enquirer for a June 11 story that he'd review how he'd handle a U.S. Supreme Court decision.

"If they do what I hope they don't do, I'll weigh my options and look at my statutory duties as county clerk. "I don't think I'm the only county clerk in the state who is opposed."

In June, Brown submitted a column to The Enquirer about his decision in 2004, when he was the GOP Chairman in Northern Kentucky, to vote for an amendment to the Kentucky Constitution that banned same-sex marriage.

In the column he said he believed it was "clearly within a states' rights issue."

"I fully support and believe the religious and moral arguments made to maintain Kentucky's current laws defining marriage," Brown wrote. "But the Supreme Court justices must address the constitutional question of a state's right to define marriage."