A day after Santa Fe Mayor David Coss urged New Mexico's county clerks to start accepting wedding license applications from same-sex couples, Rep. Bill McCamley, D-Las Cruces, has asked Attorney General Gary King to issue an opinion on whether this would be legal.McCamley was requested to request the opinion by Dona Ana County Clerk Lynn Ellins. Ellins, in a letter to McCamley today said that clerks currently are prohibited from issuing licenses to same-sex couples by a 2004 opinion by King's predecessor, Patricia Madrid.
McCamley, in an email to reporters said he's "extremely proud" that Ellins asked him to make the request to King. County clerks can't request opinions of the attorney general, but legislators can.
"As Santa Fe City Attorney Geno Zamora recently pointed out, nowhere in New Mexico law is marriage defined as between a man and a women and denying same sex couples the right to officially express their love for one another is blatant discrimination," McCamley said.
"I truly hope that Attorney General King takes a deep and thorough look at this law. I further hope that he decides that clerks should issues licenses to any couple of legal age and allow New Mexico to enter the 21st century."
McCamley's letter to King is below:
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