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Clerks begin issuing same-sex marriage licenses in Miss.

Kate Royals
The Clarion-Ledger
Laurin Locke, 24, right, and her partner Tiffany Brosh, 26, display their marriage license as Hinds County Circuit Clerk Barbara Dunn, center, joins them, Monday, June 29, 2015, in Jackson, Miss. The couple were able to marry after Attorney General Jim Hood emailed the state's 82 circuit clerks saying he would not take "adverse action" against any clerk who issued a marriage license to a same-sex couple.

Circuit clerks began issuing same-sex marriage licenses on Monday when Attorney General Jim Hood gave the OK to move forward.

After the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision essentially legalizing gay marriage on Friday, Hood released a statement to clerks saying the decision was not yet effective in Mississippi. The reason, he said, was a stay, or hold, placed on U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves' order overturning the same-sex marriage ban in Mississippi.

Reeves issued the order in the federal lawsuit filed by two lesbian couples in Mississippi last year. The stay was placed on the order pending the outcome of the state's appeal of Reeves' decision, but experts said the removal of the stay was a technicality since the Supreme Court's decision trumps all other courts.

Tiffany Brosh, left, and Laurin Locke of Pearl, Miss.,become the first legally-married same-sex couple in the Jackson metro area following a ceremony officiated by Justin MCreary, center, of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Jackson outside the Hinds County Courthouse in Jackson, Miss.,on Monday, June 29, 2015. The attorney general's office authorized the issuance of licenses Monday morning countering a statement made on Friday that delayed implementation of legal marriage in the state.

Hood said that until the stay was lifted, licenses would not be valid.

On Monday, however, Hood sent an e-mail to clerks that his directive on Friday "seems to have been misinterpreted as prohibiting Circuit Clerks from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The statement was merely meant to explain that an order of the Fifth Circuit would be necessary to lift the stay."

Despite the fact the stay has not yet been lifted, Hood's letter from Monday continued, "Obergefell is the law of the land. If a clerk has issued or decides to issue a marriage license to a same sex couple, there will be no adverse action taken by the Attorney General against that circuit clerk on behalf of the State."

However, if a clerk refuses to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple, Hood stated in the letter, the clerk could be sued.

Laurin Locke and  Tiffany Brosh are officially married in Hinds County, Monday, June 29, 2015.

In an attempt to expedite the issuance of licenses on Friday, attorneys for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed a motion for the immediate lifting of the stay, which Gov. Phil Bryant opposed, according to a letter from the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals sent to the attorneys in the case on Monday.

Both sides must now submit additional filings by July 1 to the court. Gov. Bryant must submit his reasons for opposing the motion, and attorneys must state "whether there is any reason why this matter should be returned to the district court or whether, instead, the final rendering can and should be made by this court."

It is not clear whether Gov. Bryant's opposition will have any bearing on clerks continuing to issue licenses.

Bryant's spokeswoman Nicole Webb said Bryant is reviewing his options before responding to the plaintiffs' motion.

The clerks association in Louisiana similarly reversed course after first arguing it would need to wait for another agency to receive an order from a federal appellate court,The Advocate reported.

Laurin Locke and Tiffany Brosh of Pearl were the first couple to receive a license in Hinds County, and Justin McCreary performed the first marriage on the steps of the courthouse Monday morning.

Contact Kate Royals at (601) 360-4619 or kroyals@gannett.com. Follow @KRRoyals on Twitter.

Duane Smith and Knol Aust get married at the Hinds County Courthouse Monday, June 29, 2015.