Take that, Kathleen Kane.
And you, Bruce Hanes.
Turns out you can’t pick and choose which laws you’re going to enforce.
At least according to Commonwealth Court President Judge Dan Pellegrini. Yesterday he rebuked the two officials who touched off this firestorm over same-sex marriage licenses here in Pennsylvania with a court order telling Montgomery County to knock it off.
Kathleen Kane should have known better. And if I didn’t think she was thinking of bigger political aspirations, that likely would have been the case.
As for Hanes, he simply picked up on Kane’s cue, looking to be on the right side of history. Too bad he wasn’t equally concerned about being on the right side of the law.
Now there are 118 couple out there who got licenses and were married who are now in something of a legal limbo.
Make no mistake, I’m no proponent of Pennsylvania’s Defense of Marriage Act. I think it should be overturned. If two men or two women want to tie the knot, I don’t have an issue with it. I wish them all the best.
What I had an issue with is the attorney general of the state declaring – after the U.S. Supreme Court knocked down the federal Defense of Marriage Act – that she found a similar law here in Pennsylvania unconstitutional, and therefore she would not defend the state in a legal challenge to the law in court.
One problem with that. She’s now wearing judge’s robes. And she’s not a member of the Legislature. Judge Pellegrini reminded her of that.
There is a way to change the Pennsylvania law. It is through the courts or the Legislature. Not the stunt Kane pulled.
Judge Pellegrini’s ruling was right on the money.
Unfortunately, it came about 118 marriage licenses too late.
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