BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Alabama’s stand against same-sex marriage regained ground Wednesday after the state’s highest court ruled that its ban remains legal, despite federal court pressure to begin issuing licenses to gays and lesbians.
Advocates of same-sex marriage said they’re not giving up.
The Alabama Supreme Court ordered county probate judges to uphold the state ban pending a final ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, which hears arguments in April on whether same-sex couples nationwide have a fundamental right to marry and whether states can ban such unions.
Stuck between the state’s highest court and a series of federal rulings, many probate judges were at a loss early Wednesday. Mobile County, one of the state’s largest, initially announced that it wouldn’t issue licenses to anyone, straight or gay.
By mid-day, gay rights advocates couldn’t find a single county still granting licenses to same-sex couples.
Montgomery County Probate Judge Steven Reed, a Democrat and one of the first to comply with U.S. District Judge Callie Granade, said he was duty-bound to turn gays and lesbians away again, for now. He also suggested that he would join a new round of appeals.
“I feel pretty safe in saying we will be filing something with the court,” Reed said. “I don’t think we’ll be at the end of it regardless of what we do, until the (U.S.) Supreme Court rules.”
The all-Republican court ruled 7-1 that Alabama’s 68 probate judges must stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, despite a ruling by U.S. District Judge Callie Granade in Mobile that the ban is unconstitutional.
They gave probate judges five days to respond, but speaking out could be politically risky in the conservative state, where Alabama’s justices and probate judges must run for office after each term.
Before the ruling, 48 of the state’s 67 counties were acknowledging that Alabama had become the 37th U.S. state where gays can legally wed, according to the Human Rights Campaign, which advocates for same-sex marriage nationwide.
