{"id":9959,"date":"2015-06-29T16:00:08","date_gmt":"2015-06-29T16:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=9959"},"modified":"2015-06-29T16:00:08","modified_gmt":"2015-06-29T16:00:08","slug":"judge-will-marry-gays-if-duty-calls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=9959","title":{"rendered":"Judge will marry gays, if duty calls"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Potter County Judge Nancy Tanner is on record already on an issue that well could generate a good bit of controversy.<\/p>\n

Back when she was running for the office to which she was elected, Tanner — along with her four Republican primary opponents — took part in a candidate forum sponsored by Panhandle PBS. I was privileged to be one of the journalists questioning the candidates.<\/p>\n

One of the panelists asked all the candidates a most probing question: Given that Texas law gives county judges the authority to perform marriage ceremonies, would you — as county judge — be willing to perform a ceremony uniting a same-sex couple in matrimony?<\/p>\n

Some of the candidates hemmed and hawed. One of them said “no,” he wouldn’t do it.<\/p>\n

Tanner’s response? She was unequivocal. If the courts rule that gay marriage is legal in Texas, then she would follow the law. She would marry anyone with a valid marriage license. That would be her\u00a0responsibility as county judge and she would perform it.<\/p>\n

Her answer was straightforward as it could have been. It didn’t harm her at the polls, as she won the GOP primary outright and went on to be elected county judge in November 2014.<\/p>\n

As of this morning, the issue hasn’t yet presented itself to Judge Tanner. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has said county clerks can refuse to issue marriage licenses if they have a religious objection to the Supreme Court’s ruling that legalized gay marriage.<\/p>\n

There’s been no word that I’ve heard about whether Potter County Clerk Julie Smith is going to follow the law or ignore it, per Paxton’s decision.<\/p>\n

Tanner’s take on the issue is clear. What’s cloudy and muddled is whether another countywide elected official, Smith, is going to follow the law.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned. This could get dicey.<\/p>\n\n

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Potter County Judge Nancy Tanner is on record already on an issue that well could generate a good bit of controversy. Back when she was running for the office to which she was elected, Tanner — along with her four Republican primary opponents — took part in a candidate forum sponsored by Panhandle PBS. I … Continue reading Judge will marry gays, if duty calls<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9,18],"tags":[1170,2609,3179,3684,4088,4585,4984],"class_list":["post-9959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal-news","category-local-news","category-state-news","tag-county-clerks","tag-julie-smith","tag-nancy-tanner","tag-potter-county-judge","tag-same-sex-marriage","tag-texas-attorney-general","tag-u-s-supreme-court"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9959\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}