[JURIST] California Deputy State Registrar and Chief of the Office of Vital Records [official website] Janet McKee issued a memorandum [PDF text] Wednesday setting June 17 as the start date for issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The California Supreme Court's May 15 ruling [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] in In re Marriage Cases [case materials] overturned a ban on same-sex marriage. After June 17, county clerks in California will be authorized to issue the state's redesigned marriage license [document, PDF] to all applicants, barring an intervening change in the law. The new marriage license does not include the words "bride" and "groom," instead using "Party A" and "Party B" to refer to the applicants. AP has more. The San Francisco Chronicle has local coverage.

Also Wednesday, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera [official website] filed a brief [text, PDF; official press release] with the California Supreme Court in response to a petition [JURIST report] from a conservative Christian advocacy group seeking to stay the court's May 17 ruling. Herrera's filing argues that the advocacy group, the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) [advocacy website], lacks standing to petition the California Supreme Court since it was not a party to In re Marriage Cases. The filing argues against the ADF's allegation that the nature and timing of the ruling is "confusing", and instead asserts that there is no basis for the court to stay its ruling until the November elections.