AL Chief Justice Defies Supreme Court On Same-Sex Marriage

ROY MOORE STRIKES BACK

by Joey Clark

Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore has ordered AL probate judges to stop issuing same-sex marriage licenses, frustrating the United States Supreme Court’s landmark ruling from last year that legalized same-sex marriage across the nation.

Roy Moore’s order declares:

“Until further decision by the Alabama Supreme Court, the existing orders of the Alabama Supreme Court that Alabama probate judges have a ministerial duty not to issue any marriage license contrary to the Alabama Sanctity of Marriage Amendment or the Alabama Marriage Protection Act remain in full force and effect.”

The New York Times reports:

On Wednesday, Chief Justice Moore, who is among the country’s most prominent religious conservatives, argued, in part, that probate judges should not issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples because of a State Supreme Court decision that upheld Alabama’s marriage prohibitions. The conflicting decisions in Washington and Montgomery, the chief justice wrote, led to “confusion and uncertainty” among Alabama’s probate judges about how to apply the federal court’s opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges, which established a constitutional right to same-sex marriage.

“Many probate judges are issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in accordance with Obergefell; others are issuing marriage licenses only to couples of the opposite gender or have ceased issuing all marriage licenses,” he wrote. “This disparity affects the administration of justice in this state.”