By: Joseph Bui - The Daily Californian

Even though an initiative to ban same-sex marriage in California is on the November election ballot, many same-sex couples in the state have still set plans to tie the knot.

Over the past week, same-sex couples in Alameda County have increased the number of marriage licenses issued by the County Clerk’s office after California became the second state to overrule a ban on same-sex marriages.

On May 15, the California Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have a fundamental right to marry.

The ruling officially went into effect on June 12 at 5 p.m., enabling same-sex couples to apply for marriage licenses for the first time in counties across the state.

Kevin Hing, chief of the Alameda County Clerk-Recorder’s office, said that the office has reported sharp increases in the number of marriage licenses issued since the beginning of last week, when the court’s ruling went into effect.

The office extended their hours of operation last Monday to last until 8 p.m. in anticipation of the increased demand for marriage licenses.

Hing said that his office typically issues anywhere from eight to 20 marriage licenses a day. Between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. on June 12, the office issued 66 marriage licenses, exceeding the average number of licenses the office normally issues per week.

While Hing said the office has not kept official records on the number of marriage licenses issued to same-sex couples, he believed that the vast majority of couples on Monday evening and Tuesday were same-sex couples, based on his

conversations with those requesting marriage licenses. He estimated that for the rest of the week, about half the number of the marriage licenses issued went to same-sex couples.

However, the issue of same-sex marriage is not yet resolved.

In November, a statewide ballot initiative will allow voters to decide whether or not to amend the state constitution to limit marriage to opposite-sex couples.

Goodwin Liu, an assistant law professor at the Boalt Hall School of Law, said he did not see the November ballot initiative as a deterrent to same-sex couples wishing to marry between now and the fall.

“The emerging consensus among the legal community is that those marriages would remain valid,” he said.

Boalt lecturer-in-residence Joan Hollinger, who wrote a statement to the state court in support of same-sex marriage, agreed that the prospect of the initiative passing would not keep same-sex couples from getting married.

She said she believes thousands of same-sex couples will marry before November, both within and outside the state, since California law does not limit marriage solely to current residents.

Historically, approved amendments on both the state and federal levels have generally been prospective, rather than retroactive, Hollinger said.

“It would be highly unusual for the marriages that are taking place now to be invalid,” she said.

Joseph Bui reports for UC Berkeley’s The Daily Californian. The Daily Californian is partnering with Campus Politico for the 2008 elections.

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