Judge Roy Moore Blocks Marriage Licenses for Same-Sex Couples in Alabama!
Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Judge Roy Moore has ordered the probate courts of the state of Alabama to cease issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in Alabama because Chief Justice Moore claims that Alabama’s Marriage Protection Act is still in effect.
Roy Moore’s name may ring a few bells from his last tenure on the Alabama State Supreme Court when he defied a Federal Court order to remove a ‘monument’ to the Ten Commandments from the chapter of Exodus in the Christian Bible. Justice Moore was eventually removed from the Alabama State Supreme Court by Alabama’s Judicial Ethics Panel.
According to the Chief Justice of the Alabama State Supreme Court (ASSC), because Alabama was not a directly named in Obergefell v. Hodges Alabama is not bound by the U.S. Supreme Court’s order resulting from Obergefell v. Hodges declaring that State laws and State Constitutional provisions that treat same-sex couples differently than opposite-sex couples differently for the purposes of marriage are unconstitutional via the US Constitutions 14th Amendments Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses. This is in spite of the fact that a ruling by a Federal Judge, Judge Callie V. S. Granade, in Alabama has already ruled that Obergefell is binding on Alabama’s Probate Judges.
ASSC Justice Moore’s order creates a very ‘uncomfortable’ situation as they are now facing sanctions from both ends. In spite of the fact that in this case the orders from the U.S. Federal Courts are clearly valid, the State of Alabama can clearly and easily hassle, remove, and fine Alabama State Probate Judges with the Probate Judges having to recoup any damage after the fact. On the other side are the U.S. Federal Courts that can find the Probate Judges in contempt. Barring a sudden change in the makeup of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), the Probate Judges of Alabama are not likely to be able to make up any damages they sustain if they defy U.S. Federal Court orders.
It does appear that ASSC Chief Justice Moore intends to put the screws to the Probate Judges of Alabama. I am not sure how this will play out in Alabama, but I wouldn’t put it past Chief Justice Moore to go down in flames again. The question then is, if he continues to fight the SCOTUS’s Obergefell decision how much damage will he do and to whom will he do it in his Theocratic Kobayashi Maru scenario playing out live in the State of Alabama?