Salem, Ore.
The Oregon Supreme Court has nullified marriage licenses that a county government issued to 3,000 gay couples last year. The court said that officials in Multnomah County had no right to simply ignore a state law defining marriage as being between a man and a woman, even if they thought it was unconstitutional. The county, which includes Portland, issued marriage licenses to homosexual couples for six weeks, beginning last April, until a judge ordered it to stop. In November, voters settled the matter by approving a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage everywhere in the state.
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