Judge tells Florida counties to start issuing gay marriage licenses


A federal judge ruled Thursday that all county clerks in Florida must start issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples on Jan. 6. U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle of Tallahassee had ruled that the state's gay marriage ban was unconstitutional in August, but stayed the decision through Jan. 5 to give Florida officials time to appeal. "The defendants did that," Hinkle wrote. "They lost." The U.S. Supreme Court declined to extend the stay. Read more at Reuters.
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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.
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