Somerville eyes challenge to AG

The mayor of Somerville said he may challenge Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly's orders to stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples from out of state, although he has temporarily suspended issuing the licenses.

"It's just a temporary pause," said Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone. "We are dissecting and analyzing the documents. . . . But I submit we are on the right side of the law."

Curtatone expressed "disappointment" with Reilly for siding with Governor Mitt Romney, a gay marriage opponent, in using a 1913 statute that makes a Massachusetts marriage invalid if it would be void in the couple's home state.

"It is disappointing that the attorney general has decided to take the side of the governor," Curtatone said. "This is a time for elected leaders to stand up and say the 1913 law is outrageous and this policy is outrageous."

On Friday, four days after gay marriage became legal in Massachusetts, Reilly sent letters to Somerville and three other communities -- Worcester, Springfield, and Provincetown -- demanding that they comply with the 1913 law and stop issuing licenses to gay and lesbian couples from out of state.

He warned that the local clerks should comply with his orders to avoid an "enforcement action."

Late yesterday, Curtatone sent a two-page letter to Reilly asking for clarification. Curtatone posed several issues, including whether the attorney general was actually issuing a cease-and-desist order and if the same policy should be applied to heterosexual couples.

The mayor declined to elaborate on comments by his spokesman Mark Horan yesterday that the city was still weighing its legal options.

Reilly, through a spokesman, declined to comment yesterday.

Worcester officials, meanwhile, agreed yesterday to comply with Reilly's orders. David M. Moore, Worcester city solicitor, said that City Clerk David J. Rushford has denied licenses to 15 out-of-state gay couples who had applied last week.

"I talked this morning with the clerk and he has reluctantly agreed to comply with the directive until the matter is resolved," Moore said.

Springfield already had suspended giving licenses to out-of-state couples last week, anticipating action by Reilly.

In Provincetown, the Board of Selectmen is expected to take up Reilly's order tonight.

Reilly probably will seek an injunction against municipalities that do not comply. That would take the dispute over the 1913 law into the courts. Reilly acted after Romney demanded copies of marriage license applications last week from the four communities and sent 10 of them to the attorney general as evidence.

Romney has said the state registrar will not record the marriage licenses of gay couples who are from out of state and do not plan to move to Massachusetts. That, he has said, will make future licenses and those already granted invalid.