LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) - A District of Columbia clerk refused to accept a New Mexico man's state driver's license for a marriage license because she and her supervisor believed New Mexico was a foreign country.

  

Gavin Clarkson told the Las Cruces Sun-News it happened Nov. 20 at the District of Columbia Courts Marriage Bureau as he tried to apply for a marriage license.

  

Clarkson says the clerk told him he needed an international passport to get the marriage license.

  

The clerk finally concluded New Mexico was a state after Clarkson objected three times and granted the license to Clarkson and his fiancee.

  

The D.C. courts system acknowledged the staff error to the Sun-News.

  

New Mexico was admitted into the U.S. as a state in 1912.