Last week the anti-gay group,
Liberty Counsel, filed a petition with the Alabama Supreme Court requesting that the Court stop probate judges from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. I ignored the case, because I figured the Alabama Supreme Court would just dismiss the case because of jurisdictional and standing issues. Silly me. The Court has now requested responses from the probate judges listed in the complaint (probate judges from Jefferson and Montgomery Counties are two).
Federal district court Judge Granade ruled that Alabama's laws that prohibit same-sex couples from marrying and Alabama from recognizing those marriages are unconstitutional. Since then, about fifty county probate judges have begun issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
It is difficult to think that the Court will give serious consideration to this complaint, but we are talking about Alabama here.
You can read the original petition for Writ of Mandamus here.
And, here is the Alabama Supreme Court's order requesting responses.
NCLR has already filed an amicus brief. You can read that brief here.
From NCLR's amicus brief:
Petitioners Have No “Clear Legal Right” To Relief Because They Improperly Seek To
Enforce The State’s Own Interest As Sovereign In The Enforcement Of Its Laws, Which Can Only Be Asserted By State Officials, Not By Private Parties.
And, from
Equality On Trial:
The Alabama Supreme Court has issued an order requiring the probate judges in counties who are issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples and named as defendants in a pending action filed by Liberty Counsel to “file answers and,if they choose to do so, briefs, addressing issues raised by the petition, including, but not limited to, any issue relating to standing or otherwise relating to this Court’s subject-matter jurisdiction, and any issue relating to the showing necessary for temporary relief as requested in the petition.”
The order is addressing the petition filed by Liberty Counsel, an anti-LGBT organization, attempting to force county probate judges who are issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples to stop issuing them.
There are two dissents from the order. The two separate dissents highlight the unusual procedural posture of the case. But most importantly, they point out that it was filed by private organizations, and those organizations may not actually have standing to ask the court to issue the mandate forcing probate judges to refrain from issuing the licenses.