Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore's order to his state's probate judges
not to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples set up a historic conflict. The stay on a federal judge's decision in favor of marriage equality expired February 9. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals had refused to block marriages going forward. The Supreme Court had denied a stay. So, would Alabama's probate judges—who hold elected positions—follow the federal government or follow Moore's orders?
The answers vary across the state. In Birmingham:
"We have large crowds generally on Valentine's Day here," Judge Alan King of Jefferson County Probate Court told NBC News by phone. "This is by far the largest crowd that I've seen. It's a very happy occasion."
By 9 AM local time, Equality Alabama was reporting that
36 couples had arrived in Jefferson County to get licenses. Licenses were also being issued in
Montgomery,
Huntsville, and other cities. However,
not all judges were casting their lot with equality and the federal government: In Chilton County, the probate judge will issue licenses but not perform marriages. In Choctaw, Pike, Shelby, Bibb, Baldwin, Calhoun, Mobile, and other counties, probate offices aren't issuing any marriage licenses. In Bibb County, the judge explained that decision by saying "I don't know whether I want to defy the Chief justice of the state Supreme Court or a federal judge." In Washington County, the judge was not so conflicted, saying "I'm not worried about following the U.S. constitution."
I love the state of Alabama dearly, but for context on the state's 2006 vote to ban same-sex marriage, a ban that got 81 percent of the vote, bear in mind that in 2000, just six years earlier, more than 40 percent of Alabama voters opposed repealing an anti-miscegenation law that had been unconstitutional since the Supreme Court's 1967 Loving v. Virginia decision. That Washington County judge isn't alone, in other words.
The good news is that Alabama couples can find places to marry in their state, despite Justice Clarence Thomas's fierce dissent, despite Roy Moore, despite judges who aren't worried about following the Constitution.
Head below the fold to see a few of these couples.
9:37 AM PT: Moore continues to be predictably defiant:
Calling it an “illegal order,” Moore said, “I cannot allow courts under my state to be intimidated by the federal court’s decision.”
Riiight. It's the federal judge who's intimidating people illegally.