By Harriet McLeod
CHARLESTON S.C. (Reuters) - A judge in South Carolina said on Wednesday he would issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple even though the state's ban on gay unions remains in place after actions by the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for them elsewhere.
Charleston County Probate Judge Irvin Condon accepted an application for a marriage license from a lesbian couple on Wednesday. He said he would issue it after the mandatory 24-hour waiting period, unless a higher court intervened to block him.
"As a result of the actions of the U.S. Supreme Court on (Monday), the Charleston County Probate Court is required to accept and issue marriage licenses for same-sex couples," the judge said in a statement.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected appeals to uphold same-sex marriage bans in five states, ending bans in those states but leaving intact bans in 20 other states.
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, a Republican, on Wednesday afternoon asked the state Supreme Court to block the judge from issuing gay marriage licenses, citing the state's voter-approved ban.
"Until the federal courts rule on this very important matter, in which the people of the state voted overwhelmingly, it is not legally proper to issue such licenses," his petition stated.
Applications for marriage licenses by three same-sex couples in Greenville, South Carolina, were refused on Wednesday. A judge there said the licenses would not be issued until the legal questions surrounding same-sex marriage had been settled with certainty.
(Reporting by Harriet McLeod; Writing by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Jonathan Kaminsky, Mohammad Zargham and Eric Walsh)