SCOTUS Rejects Pa. Clerk's Final Attempt to Stop Marriage Equality

Supreme Court justice Samuel Alito Jr. today denied a Pennsylvania county clerk's plea to stop same-sex marriages in that state, SCOTUS Blog reports.

After Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett declined to defend the state's marriage ban, Schuylkill County register of wills Theresa Santai-Gaffney, whose office issues marriage licenses, asked the U.S. Supreme Court for permission to appeal a U.S. district judge's May 20 ruling invalidating the ban.

Santai-Gaffney first filed her request to appeal with ruling with the district court , which rejected it, dismissing the clerk's argument as "contrived." Subsequently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit denied the same request Thursday. Now Alito has declined to hear her case, without any comment provided from him.

This appears to be the last stop for attempts to end marriage equality in Pennsylvania.