Johnson County judge says he doesn’t regret order to allow same-sex marriages
.jpg "Chief Judge Kevin Moriarty, who last week issued an administrative order directing the court clerk to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, says he’s not worried about the Nov. 4 election, when voters will decide whether he is retained. “A judge — any judge — can’t let that be the basis of their decision,” he said. “If we start making our decisions based solely upon whether or not we are retained, we are in trouble.”")
Politically speaking, it could not have been a worse time for Johnson County Chief Judge Kevin Moriarty to get tangled up in the issue of same-sex marriage.
Appointed to the bench in 2004 by then-Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat, Moriarty will be up for retention when voters go to the polls Nov. 4.
Regardless, Moriarty says he is not worried about the election after directing the court clerk last week to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Moriarty issued the administrative order after the U.S. Supreme Court let stand lower-court rulings that on constitutional grounds struck down bans on same-sex marriage in five states. The court’s action also applied to Kansas because it in the same judicial circuit.
“I want to be retained,” Moriarty said in an interview with The Star. “There is never a good time to make an unpopular decision.”
While Moriarty said no one has indicated they would campaign against his retention, he suspects there are a lot of people who might want him off the bench.
“A judge — any judge — can’t let that be the basis of their decision,” he said. “If we start making our decisions based solely upon whether or not we are retained, we are in trouble.”
Critics said Moriarty overstepped his bounds when he issued his administrative order last week. They said he prematurely allowed marriage licenses to be issued to same-sex couples before there was a specific challenge to the Kansas law banning gay marriage.
Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt went to court to halt Moriarty’s order. The state Supreme Court agreed to halt the order temporarily, but it might be irrelevant now that two couples are challenging the state’s ban in federal court.
Legal scholars think that a federal judge will be bound by a ruling from the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals striking down same-sex marriage bans in Oklahoma and Utah. An appeals court ruling from another judicial circuit led to North Carolina’s ban on gay marriage being invalidated Friday afternoon.
Moriarty said he has no regrets about his order. He said he felt “very confident” that same-sex marriage is the law, given the ruling handed down from the federal appeals court and allowed to stand by the Supreme Court.
To reach Brad Cooper, call 816-234-7724 or send email to bcooper@kcstar.com.
This story was originally published October 13, 2014 at 9:41 AM with the headline "Johnson County judge says he doesn’t regret order to allow same-sex marriages."