Ortiz drives in 3; Red Sox beat White Sox 7-6

Spring into Gardening Workshop planned for April 27

First Posted: 7/30/2013 HARRISBURG &#8212; The Corbett administration on Tuesday filed a lawsuit to stop the Montgomery County register of wills from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Register of Wills D. Bruce Hanes has issued 34 licenses to gay couples. His deputy, Joan Nagle, said he would not comment, on the advice of counsel.
The lawsuit in Commonwealth Court seeks a court order to halt the marriages the state contends are illegal.
Hanes&#8217; actions are in &#8220;direct defiance of the express policy of the commonwealth that &#8216;marriage shall be between one man and one woman,&#8217; &#8221; said the complaint filed by lawyers for the Department of Health, an agency under Gov. Tom Corbett&#8217;s jurisdiction.
Hanes began issuing the licenses after Attorney General Kathleen Kane this month publicly announced she believes the state&#8217;s law banning gay marriage is unconstitutional.
Kane&#8217;s stance causes &#8220;chaos and uncertainty,&#8221; evidenced by the &#8220;unlawful&#8221; actions of gay marriages in Montgomery County since her July 11 statement, said Corbett&#8217;s general counsel, James D. Schultz.
Kane&#8217;s spokesman said she has no jurisdiction in the Montgomery County case and would not comment.
Kane, a Democrat, said she would not defend Pennsylvania in a separate lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and others that challenges the 1996 law banning gay marriage. Kane said she would delegate the case to Schultz&#8217; office, as allowed by the Commonwealth Attorney&#8217;s Act.
&#8220;We applaud Kathleen Kane&#8217;s courageous decision, saying the law is unconstitutional and deferring to the governor,&#8221; said Gary Van Horn, president of the Delta Foundation of Pittsburgh, the leading advocacy group for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people in Western Pennsylvania. The lawsuit &#8220;is another instance showing Corbett is out of touch,&#8221; Van Horn said.
Schultz&#8217; office will defend the statute, which names the governor and Health Secretary Michael Wolf as defendants, Schultz said. The office would do so regardless, he said in a letter to Kane&#8217;s chief of staff, Adrian King.
The &#8220;attorney general&#8217;s unprecedented public adjudication of the statute&#8217;s alleged unconstitutionality was an improper usurpation of the role of the courts, which at a minimum causes confusion among those charged with administering the law and places any lawyer defending the case at a disadvantage from the outset,&#8221; Schultz said in his response to Kane.
Kane&#8217;s decision leaves those defending the law in the &#8220;unenviable&#8221; position of arguing for a law that the state&#8217;s top law enforcement officer publicly declared to be unconstitutional, Schultz said.
Kane has a &#8220;sacred obligation&#8221; to uphold the constitutions of the United States and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, King stated in an earlier letter to Schultz.
Kane concluded that Pennsylvania&#8217;s law &#8220;violates the due process and equal protection provisions of the United States and Pennsylvania constitutions and is therefore not enforceable,&#8221; King said. She made the decision after reviewing the law, he said. &#8220;Politics and personal belief were not taken into account.&#8221;
Pennsylvania is &#8220;the only state in the Northeast without marriage equality or civil unions,&#8221; Van Horn said. &#8220;It will be legal here in Pennsylvania at one time or another.&#8221;

Corbett administration sues to stop same-sex marriages