A comment made in a legal brief is getting a lot of attention . The brief, dealing with the register of wills in Montgomery County issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The attorneys for the Pennsylvania Office of General Council equating a legally enforceable marriage of a gay couple to that of one between 12-year-olds. Gay Rights Groups are outraged , while the Governor came out to say that the analogy was inappropriate. This, hours after the Office of General Counsel released this statement to the press :
“We are deeply disturbed and disappointed by recent coverage of the same-sex marriage case which misrepresents the commonwealth’s position in this matter.”
The director of Keystone Progress told FOX43 that while they appreciate the Governor’s remarks, they believe the comment was deliberate.
“ This isn’t some utterance that someone said oops I said something I shouldn’t of said. We’ve all made mistakes like that. These are deliberate thoughts that were thought through, vetted,” says Michael Morrill, Director, Keystone Progress
Nils Hagen-Fredericksen with the Office of General Counsel says this case is a matter of a specific legal issue.
“ Does a local official have the ability to pick and chose which laws they enforce and which laws they disregard ? That`s the key question for the courts and it is unfortunate that an inappropriate analogy is clouding the discussion to what is the real legal issue,” says Nils Hagen-Fredericksen, Office of General Counsel
This case goes before a judge in Commonwealth Court next Wednesday.