NOW, AT THE LATEST MINUTE OF THE HOUR: Last-minute MA news from the Associated Press

In an 11th hour bid to stop legal gay marriages from beginning next week, conservative groups asked a federal judge on Wednesday for an injunction barring marriage licenses from being issued to same-sex couples on May 17.

As Monday's deadline approached, officials in Worcester and Somerville said they would follow Provincetown's lead and defy Gov. Mitt Romney by issuing licenses to out-of-state couples. The Republican governor has threatened legal action against clerks who allow nonresident couples to marry.

Arguing in U.S. District Court, Boston, Mathew Staver, president and general counsel of the Florida-based Liberty Counsel, said the state's highest court overstepped its bounds when it ruled in November that gay marriage should be legal in Massachusetts.

"It's an unusual time that we live in, and we're asking this court to intervene to prevent this constitutional train wreck," Staver told U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro.

Assistant Attorney General Peter Sacks, arguing on behalf of the Supreme Judicial Court, said the court made its ruling based on an interpretation of the state constitution, and the case shouldn't be in federal court. ...

Tauro didn't immediately rule on the request, saying he would issue a decision Thursday afternoon or Friday morning. Both sides said they would appeal to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals if they lost. ...

Conservative groups may be trying to make a point in the case, but "there's very small chance it will be anything other than a symbolic point," said David Yas, an attorney and editor of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly.

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posted by Eve at 4:25 PM | link

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