Same-sex marriages in Alabama came to an apparent standstill Wednesday after the state’s highest court ordered local officials to ignore the decision of a federal judge and stop issuing marriage licenses to gay couples.
The decision represented another swing of the pendulum in Alabama, which on Feb. 9 was to join the ranks of states that offer legal same-sex marriage but instead was plunged into judicial chaos. A patchwork of policies took hold, with some counties granting marriage licenses to gay couples and others refusing. The chaos sparked confusion and a host of new legal challenges.
The tensions had subsided somewhat in recent weeks, as more and more probate judges opted to issue the licenses, despite an order by the state’s conservative chief justice. They said they were following the guidance of a federal judge, who had ordered the probate judge in one county to issue licenses to same-sex couples.
But most, if not all, of the probate judges apparently halted issuing the licenses Wednesday after the state’s elected, Republican Supreme Court issued a defiant ruling late Tuesday.
“As it has done for approximately two centuries,” the justices wrote, “Alabama law allows for ‘marriage’ between only one man and one woman.” Alabama officials, they added, have a duty “not to issue any marriage license contrary to this law. Nothing in the United States Constitution alters or overrides this duty.”
Gay rights groups said as of Wednesday afternoon they could not confirm that any of the state’s 67 counties were issuing marriage licenses to gay couples.
In Mobile County, Probate Judge Don Davis stopped issuing all marriage licenses Wednesday — homosexual or heterosexual — and issued an apologetic statement.
“We regret having to take this action, but feel that it is necessary given the unprecedented circumstances that currently exist,” a statement posted on the probate court’s Web site said. “It is the Court’s intent to comply with all law governing its operations and to not discriminate in any manner against any person.”
The change left the hundreds of gay couples who had obtained marriage licenses in limbo.
“We’re going to have to band together with all the other gay couples and lesbian couples and march on Montgomery . . . or even go to Washington, D.C., to fight this,” said Jim Strawser, one of the plaintiffs in the legal challenge that initially led a federal judge to strike down the state’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage. “Because if we don’t, we’re not going to get nowhere.”
Strawser and his husband, John Humphrey, spent much of the afternoon on the phone with their attorney, trying to figure out the implications of the ruling.
Strawser recently received a pacemaker and is slated to have stomach surgery later this year. But he may postpone the procedure if it is unclear that Humphrey, whom he married Feb. 12, can make decisions about his health in case of emergency, he said.
The state court’s decision, however, drew praise from some socially conservative groups.
“I applaud the Alabama justices in their wise decision respecting the freedom of Alabama’s voters to uphold natural marriage,” Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said in a statement.
Disputes between state and federal courts are not uncommon, said Amanda Frost, a law professor at American University. A state Supreme Court is not bound by precedent set in a lower federal court, and there is ambiguity as to which court most of the probate judges are to obey.
The dispute may be settled by the U.S. Supreme Court, which is scheduled later this year to decide on whether states may ban same-sex marriage.
Fred Barbash contributed to this report.
Sandhya Somashekhar is the social change reporter for the Washington Post.
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