Idaho county clerk offices still preparing new marriage licenses, despite temp. hold

Today the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a temporary stay, putting on hold same-sex marriages in Idaho while the court decides if it wants to issue a longer stay while the appeals process plays out.

Despite the stay, an emergency online video conference meeting was held with all 44 of Idaho’s counties, where they discussed how to handle the issue and prepare for the unexpected.

Today the Bannock County Clerk’s Office said they had been receiving dozens of phone calls from folks throughout the community who plan on coming down to the county Friday morning in anticipation of legally marrying their partners of the same sex, despite the temporary hold.

Interim County Clerk Robert Poleki said he and his staff are bracing themselves for the possible turnout in the morning, nevertheless.

“We might have some upset people tomorrow because they had their hopes up and they might be standing in line, and now we have to inform them that we can’t do that as of right now,” Poleki said.

While the other 43 counties squabbled over designing each of their new marriage licenses, Bannock County decided to keep it simple so not much will change, but they will still be prepared in case the appeal is lifted.

The biggest change to the new marriage license certificate takes-out the term “bride” and “groom” and instead replaces it with “applicant one” and “applicant two”.

While other counties are insisting on requiring applicants to disclose their gender on their new marriage license applications, Bannock County decided to leave that as optional.

Poleki said he does not expect to see the stay lifted by Friday morning, but it could still happen if the higher court strikes it down before then.

Idaho now joins Utah, Nevada, and Hawaii as states who are all in this same situation.

If the stay is struck down, the appeal can then be taken to the U.S. Supreme Court.