St. Clair County begins accepting applications for same-sex marriage licenses
St. Clair County is accepting applications for same-sex marriage licenses after Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said there was no reason to wait for a June 1 law allowing the unions.
Clarity from Madigan was sought by the Macon County clerk’s office after a federal court ruling last month that allowed same-sex couples in Cook County to begin applying for licenses.
In her letter to Macon County Clerk Stephen Bean on Tuesday, Madigan said the federal court ruling was not limited to the state’s most populous county and encouraged county clerks across Illinois to make the licenses available.
The letter by Madigan caught county clerks across the state off guard and led to varying reactions.
“We are at this time taking applications that will be reviewed by our state’s attorney and he will determine whether we have the legal authority,” St. Clair County Clerk Tom Holbrook said Wednesday.
It is “pretty clear” based on other legal challenges around the state that same-sex marriage licenses will be issued in the Metro East before June 1, he said.
Cook and Champaign counties have already started issuing licenses; McLean County will start March 24.
Holbrook said his office had received several calls from gay couples wanting to know what St. Clair County planned to do.
“We might as well get the process ready because it’s coming,” he said. “We think it’s better to be proactive.”
In Madison County, Clerk Debra D. Ming-Mendoza said her office was proceeding as if June 1 remained the date.
She said her office did not have new forms that offered appropriate options for the names of the applicants. Current marriage license applications have “bride” and “groom” on them.
Taking a current form, crossing out a title and writing in what the couple would prefer “is not professional and doesn’t look legal.”
She said she had fielded a few calls from people interested in getting married in Madison County.
“They seemed to understand,” Ming-Mendoza said. “One woman asked: ‘If we go to Cook County, will our marriage be recognized in Madison County?’ I said: ‘Of course, it would be.’ ”
Monroe County Clerk Dennis Knobloch said he was telling couples calling his office to check back later.
“We’re looking at what it will take to institute” the changes in the county’s computer system for same-sex marriage forms, Knobloch said.
“I’m sure it will take a little time to do that.”
Bean, the Macon County clerk in central Illinois, said he would begin issuing the licenses, perhaps as soon as Friday, along with a warning to couples that marriages before June 1 could come with legal risks.
“A court could determine we really didn’t have the power to do this and the marriage is void,” Bean said.
In November, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law the recognition of same-sex marriages. Because the final House vote on the bill was too close to win the “supermajority” necessary for immediate implementation of the law, it was set to go into effect in June.
But after couples in Cook County filed suit, U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman in Chicago ruled last month that there was no reason to delay the “fundamental right” of gay couples to marry.
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