In a ruling issued on September 12, 2013, after considering over 500 pages of briefs filed by many “interested” parties the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court issued an injunction proscribing the issuance of marriage licenses to same sex couples in violation of a 1996 statute limiting marriage to persons of the opposite sex.

While it appears that this is not the final word in a debate that began earlier this summer when Montgomery County’s Register of Wills/Orphan’s Court Clerk began to issue same-sex marriage licenses for the time being the appellate court has held, as stated in President Judge Dan Pellegrini’s opinion:

“A clerk of courts has not been given the discretion to decide … whether the statute he or she is charged to enforce is a good idea or bad one, constitutional or not. Only courts have the power to make that decision…”

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/20130913_PA_Court_orders_Montco_to_halt_licenses_for_gay_marriages.html#sBj8TVx8oy0PSgKV.99