By Neisha Roberts
The Alabama Baptist
It’s been a year since U.S. District Court Judge Callie Granade ruled that Alabama’s refusal to recognize same-sex “marriages” was unconstitutional. And it’s been more than seven months since same-sex “marriage” was legalized in the state.
But that doesn’t mean everyone’s OK with it. Several counties, including Cleburne and Elmore, have shut down all their marriage licenses offices, according to Internet sources, to avoid issuing same-sex licenses. A few other counties are only issuing licenses to opposite-sex couples.
In January, Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore ordered state probate judges to refuse licenses to same-sex couples, claiming the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June 2015 did not apply to Alabama, but only to Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee.
However, many legal advisers see Moore’s statement as nonsense.
“The Supreme Court decision has authoritative precedent that binds all state officials,” said Ronald Krotoszynski, a law professor at the University of Alabama. “This is little different than a Southern governor ordering school officials to refuse to segregate schools,” the Los Angeles Times reported.
After Moore’s order, however, three probate courts reported that they had stopped issuing marriage licenses in early January.
During this time complaints were filed to the Judicial Inquiry Commission of Alabama in mid-February regarding the Alabama Supreme Court’s silence on pending case Ex parte State ex rel. Alabama Policy Institute, submitted in March 2015, which upheld the state’s same-sex “marriage” bans.
Since the state Supreme Court is still deliberating that case, supporting marriage between one man and one woman should still be in effect, one complaint claims.
Terry Batton, Barbour County Tea Party president, who filed the complaint, said in a press release, “We always expect the justices of the Alabama Supreme Court to rule expeditiously in any case but especially one of such great importance. Instead they have been sitting on the case for almost eight months leaving probate judges, legislators and concerned citizens in quandary.”
Null and void ban
But according to legal experts, the pending case should make the same-sex “marriage” ban null and void because of other developments in federal court, like the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that the decision in Obergefell nullified the ban, msnbc.com reported.
So why all the continued confusion?
Alabama law is unique in that it says probate judges “may” issue marriage licenses, not “must” or “shall,” like in Kentucky’s law for example. If a couple were to file a lawsuit against a court, the lawsuit could potentially fail because of the “may” clause. But that theory hasn’t been tested yet.
Alabama Citizens Action Program (ALCAP) has fought to defend the biblical definition of marriage along this judicial journey.
Joe Godfrey, ALCAP executive director, has been directly involved with providing assistance and counsel to churches and pastors about the issue of same-sex “marriage.” He’s been invited by numerous Alabama Baptist churches and associations across the state to provide counsel on appropriate response to the marriage rulings and how they impact congregations, pastors, families and individual members.
For more resources on how to handle same-sex couples and same-sex “marriage” requests in your church, visit alcap.com or call 205-985-9062.
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