WHEN the Supreme Court recognised a right for same-sex couples to marry in June 2015, the deep south took the news rather hard. No state was more piqued than Alabama, the least enthusiastic in the country about expanding marriage laws to include gays and lesbians. And no state has a chief justice as shamelessly recalcitrant as the cartoon character known as Roy Moore. On January 6th, Judge Moore—think of a clean-shaven Yosemite Sam with a gavel—ordered probate judges in Alabama to abide by a 134-page ruling of the Alabama Supreme Court issued on March 3rd according to which “probate judges have a ministerial duty not to issue any marriage licence contrary to the Alabama Sanctity of Marriage Amendment or Alabama Marriage Protection Act”. In other words: gay and lesbian couples need not apply. This 10-month-old ruling “remains in full force and effect” pending another ruling from the unhurried Alabama Supreme Court that will decide how last summer’s US Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v Hodges impacts the law of...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/1PQLYMj
EmoticonEmoticon