Oregon Court Tosses Gay Marriage Licenses – Yahoo! News: The Oregon Supreme Court on Thursday nullified nearly 3,000 marriage licenses issued to gay couples a year ago by Portland’s Multnomah County, saying a county cannot go against state matrimonial law.

And as much as it pains me to say so, I have to agree with the court’s ruling. I support gay marriage. I think Oregon’s Constitution (pre-Amendment) supported gay marriage.

But those decisions are not a county commissioner’s to make. Laws need to be written by a legislature or passed by citizen initiative, then upheld as Constitutional by our courts. Commissioners have to follow the law as it is written and how courts have interpreted it. They don’t get to judge Constitutionality of law.

Sadly, I think that if a gay couple had filed suit to get marriage rights, the Oregon Courts may have sided with them. But when the Multnomah Commissioners jumped in and did the interpreting, it motivated the homophobes to circumvent the courts with their anti-gay amendment.