Lobbyist Linda Siegle says local attorney Paul Becht doesn't yet have grounds to sue Victoria Dunlap, the county clerk who issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples Feb. 20 in Sandoval County.
Becht, a candidate for governor and former state senator, sent a letter dated Feb. 27 to Dunlap threatening to file suit as a representative of the Alliance Defense Fund unless she officially declares the licenses void.
Siegle said she didn't think they had anything to stand on yet.
"Who are they?" she said. "They're just some outside organization that's not involved in this at all. He can't just go in and file a lawsuit. He has to file on someone's behalf."
Siegle, a lobbyist for the Coalition for Equality in New Mexico, said Becht would have to have a plaintiff, a business or an individual who has in some way been in direct contact with the license to file suit.
"He has to represent someone who is potentially being harmed by or being asked to honor the licenses," she said.
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A person asked to file the licenses or a business that's being asked by a worker who got married in Sandoval County to extend benefits to a spouse are examples of who might have the ability to challenge the legality of the licenses, she said.
"We can bring an action on behalf of the residents of Sandoval County, on the behalf of other county clerks or other county officials," Becht said.
The alliance filed a suit against San Francisco's Mayor Gavin Newsome recently in an effort to stop the city's same-sex marriages. The organization is a conservative national group that protects traditional family values and religious freedom, according to its Web site.
Though Dunlap said Monday she didn't have the authority to void the licenses, Becht said she is still liable.
"If one or more individuals who thought they were legally married in a same-gender marriage, if they had been hurt or damaged in this whole process, they could be a plaintiff," he said. "Under the law as I read it, they could get damages directly from Miss Dunlap."
Becht said in his opinion, the marriages are not legal.
"The statute book says the county clerk must use a specific form which specifies male and female, and if you're going to have applicants of the same gender, then you have to mess with the form, and that's against the law," he said. "Other statutes specify husband and wife."
State Attorney General Patricia Madrid stopped the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples on Feb. 20, but according to an article in the Albuquerque Journal, her office has not given Dunlap instructions on what to do with the more than 60 licenses that were issued or 26 that were filed that day.
Madrid's spokesman, Gayland Bryant said the county couldn't revoke the licenses, and the entire issue will likely be left for the state courts to decide.
The Coalition for Equality would likely take action if the suit is filed, though the kind of action is unclear at this point, Siegle said.
"If he finds legal standings on the marriage licenses on whatever ground he's going to make up, the couples would intervene and say 'no, court, you have to look at the whole issue.'"
Still, Becht said the issue is not really whether homosexual couples should get married.
"The question is can a county clerk legislate what the statute should be?" he said. "Does the county clerk have the authority to legislate the statute? She doesn't. She's stepping on legislative prerogative. This is a question for the Legislature to decide."
