The attorney general of Florida, Pamela Bondi, has filed motions to defend the state's same-sex marriage ban in two cases before the courts that seek to challenge it. The cases were brought by same-sex couples who are suing county clerks who would not issue marriage licences to them.
From the Miami-Herald:
Allen Winsor, the state’s solicitor general, states in the motions filed in local courts that Florida has a legitimate interest in intervening in the cases since they represent a challenge to the 2008 state constitutional amendment that banned gay marriage.
Bondi is already defending the state in a federal lawsuit filed in north Florida. That legal challenge maintains the state is discriminating against gay couples by not recognizing same-sex marriages performed in states where they are legal.
The clerks in both counties, however, are not actively defending their case.
In May of this year, Bondi asked a federal court judge to dismiss a case brought by eight same-sex married couples who wanted their out-of-state marriages recognized in the state. Bondi said that allowing same-sex marriage would "impose significant public harm." She later defended herself after her comments generated an uproar, saying "I'm simply doing my job."
