By Richard Hack

TALLAHASSEE—At 10 p.m. last evening, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, acting in her role as the attorney for Chad Poppell, Florida’s Secretary of the Department of Management Services, followed court instructions to clarify the state’s Clerks of the Court’s role in issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples beginning January 6. Basically, Bondi sidestepped the issue completely in a response that said in part, “This Court is best situated to determine the reach of its own order.”

According to Bondi, county clerks are not agents of the Secretary or the Surgeon General, but are instead “independent constitutional officers.” The response added, “the Court may wish to provide appropriate clarification.”

On Christmas Eve, federal judge Robert Hinkle ordered Poppell to explain by Monday evening whether Florida’s county clerks could issue the licenses. It was in Hinkle’s court that Florida’s ban on same-sex marriage was overturned last August. And it was Hinkle that refused to extend a stay on gay marriages beyond his self-imposed deadline of January 5, 2015.

The issue was complicated when attorneys from the law firm of Greenburg Traurig advised their clients, the states country clerks, that they could face criminal charges for issuing same-sex licenses with the Florida law banning such weddings still in place.

In other states, this has not been an issue, but in Florida, the state’s same-sex marriage ban makes it a misdemeanor to issue same-sex marriage licenses, a situation that county clerks’ lawyers called “apparently unique.”

In Judge Hinkle’s original ruling, he ordered “the Secretary, the Surgeon General, and their officers, agents, servants, employees, and attorneys — and others in active concert or participation with any of them” to abide by his ruling.

The plaintiffs’ lawyers argue that since Clerks of the Court issue marriage licenses through the state’s Department of Health, they fall under this ruling, and is administered by the Surgeon General John Armstrong.

Judge Hinkle is expected to make his clarification public by tomorrow evening. This story will be continually updated as news breaks.

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