|
U.S. District Judge Callie Granade said in a five-page order
that Mobile County Probate Court Judge Don Davis must comply
with her previous ruling, which found the state's gay marriage
ban to be unconstitutional.
Alabama's all-Republican Supreme Court had contravened that
ruling earlier this month. It ordered probate judges to stop
issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, arguing that the
ban was constitutional.
The clashing court orders underscore the depth of opposition to
gay marriage in socially conservative Alabama. The gay-marriage
ban was passed in 2006 by 81 percent of voters.
But the administration of President Barack Obama, along with big
business, have come out in support of gay marriage, and oral
arguments are scheduled before the U.S. Supreme Court next month
on the constitutionality of bans in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and
Tennessee. That hearing comes two years after the Supreme Court
invalidated a federal law that restricted benefits to
heterosexual couples. Since then, momentum has been building for
gay marriages: they are now allowed in 36 states and the
District of Columbia, up from 12 before the ruling.
Davis, in the face of the contradictory directives by a federal
judge and the state Supreme Court, had halted issuing all
marriage licenses, to same-sex and opposite-sex couples, and
asked Granade to stay her ruling. She declined.
"Although the court would agree that the developments in these
same-sex marriage cases has at times seemed dizzying, the court
finds that Judge Davis has not shown that a stay is warranted,"
Granade wrote in the order.
(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Larry
King)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
|
