Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley said on a WTOP radio show yesterday that he backs Attorney General Douglas Gansler's advice that the state recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere, and said that the state is implementing the advice.
Said O'Malley (my transcript):
"I think the attorney general gave us sound advice. In a nutshell, what he's saying is that the question is 'Should our state recognize contracts entered into in other jurisdictions?' And we always have in the past, and I believe not only is it the right legal advice, it's also the only practical way to go. I mean, with the unions being entered into in the District of Columbia there will no doubt be gay parents who are raising their children and in order to make sure that those children have all of the protections in law I think that Maryland has to recognize unions entered into in other states. And, uh, so I think that was the crux of the attorney general's advice. We're going to follow the advice. I think it was sound legal reasoning, good policy, and I know that he spent a lot of time on it. It was a pretty detailed opinion with tons of footnotes and historical annotations."
O'Malley is then asked, "Are state agencies as of right now, implementing that?"
O'Malley: "Yes. The attorney general's office is our lawyer so in every department, in every agency they have assistant attorney generals stationed there, and, uh, so that's the advice we'll follow."
