The chief justice of the Alabama State Supreme Court issued an order to all probate judges Wednesday not to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
According to Judge Roy Moore, a previous order ordered by Alabama Supreme Court in March to prevent same-sex marriages remains in effect, and Alabama’s probate judges “have a ministerial duty not to issue any marriage license” that would be contrary to both Alabama state law and its constitution.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled bans on same-sex marriages are unconstitutional, echoing a decision by a federal judge in Mobile last January stating that Alabama’s ban on same-sex marriage violated the U.S. Constitution. But Moore’s order ignored those rulings.
“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,” Moore stated in his four-page administrative order.
Moore said his order is not an Alabama Supreme Court order, but rather one issued in his capacity as “Administrative Head of the Unified Judicial System of Alabama.”
Moore also wrote that many Alabama probate judges are issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, while others are issuing licenses to only opposite-sex couples or not issuing licenses at all, confusion that exists due to the separate rulings by the Alabama Supreme Court in March and the U.S. Supreme Court in June.
“This disparity affects the administration of justice in this state,” he wrote.
He argued that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the Obergefell case in June only applied to Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee, the states that compromise the 6th Circuit and ultimately joined to form the Obergefell case. He then cited three recent decisions from the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals that, according to him, say the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision only applies to those four states from the 6th Circuit in the Obergefell case.
His order has been met with criticism.
Scott McCoy, senior staff attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center, called Moore’s order a “dead letter.”
“In no way does his administrative order supersede Judge Granade’s federal injunction prohibiting probate judges from enforcing discriminatory Alabama marriage laws,” McCoy said in a statement. “If probate judges violate the injunction, they can be held in contempt. This is Moore yet again confusing his role as chief justice with his personal anti-LGBT agenda.”
Read Moore’s order below.
Courtesy of Equality Case Files
