Same-Sex Marriage Licenses Available in Bucks County Starting Wednesday

Bucks County officials say they will begin giving marriage licenses to same-sex couples starting Wednesday morning.

The county's Register of Wills confirmed the licenses will be issued starting at 8 a.m. Wednesday, the Bucks County Courier Times reported. 

The announcement came in response to a Tuesday ruling that the state's same-sex marriage ban was unconstitutional.  “We are a better people than what these laws represent, and it is time to discard them into the ash heap of history," U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III wrote in his decision.

Since 1996, Pennsylvania has had a statute on the books defining marriage as being between "one man and one woman." The state also banned the recognition of same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions.

Pennsylvania is the 10th such state ban ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge in the past year.