N.M. Attorney General to Court: Let Gay Couples Marry

New Mexico's attorney general said he will not legally defend the state's statute that prevents same-sex couples from marrying.

Gary King told the New Mexico Supreme Court that he would not argue on his state's behalf in a lawsuit filed by a gay couple in Santa Fe who were denied wedding licenses, the Associated Press reports. Currently the state does not have a law that explicitly bans gay and lesbian couples from marrying. Instead, "female" and "male" designations on marriage license application forms have indicated a so-called ban on marriages for same-sex couples.

"There is no doubt that... the New Mexico Constitution requires the State to treat equally any of its citizens seeking legal recognition of their marriage, and that any statutory scheme interfering with that guarantee of equality is flatly unconstitutional," King wrote, according to Think Progress.

He also advised the justices to invalidate the state's rule prohibiting marriage equality.