Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens on gay marriage ruling

Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens ordered state agencies and employees to “immediately review their current practices related to their agency’s function and benefits and ensure that their practices conform to the current state of the law. In addition, to the extent that prior practices impact on-going services or recognition, agencies should establish a process to review any past agency decisions that must be remediated in the light of the Supreme Court’s ruling.”

The Supreme Court, Olens said, “requires Georgia to recognize same-sex marriage in the same way it recognizes marriage between a man and a woman.” Local governments are “constitutionally required to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, to issue those licenses in the same way and via the same procedures employed for all other applicants, and to recognize same-sex marriages on an equal footing with all other marriages.”

-- By Aaron Gould Sheinin