A federal judge on Thursday ordered Mobile County, Ala., to start issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, a ruling that could pave the way for resistant officials across the state to follow suit.
In an eight-page decision, U.S. District Judge Callie V.S. Granade reiterated that the state’s ban on same-sex marriage had been struck down and clarified that *Mobile County’s probate judge, Don Davis, had to adhere to that decision.
The decision, issued around 3:30 p.m. local time, prompted a flurry of activity at Mobile’s marriage-license window, where about 20 gay couples and dozens of well-wishers had gathered in hopes that the shutters — which had been closed all week — would finally open.
About 45 minutes later, they did, prompting a huge round of cheers from the crowd.
“We’re so thrilled,” Sara Sills, 56, who after 23 years with her partner finally got her marriage *license Thursday, said in a phone interview. “We’re on our way across the street to have a drink to celebrate.”
Though Granade’s ruling only directly applies to Mobile County, gay rights groups hope it will provide clarity to probate judges in all 67 Alabama counties, more than half of whom refused to give out marriage licenses to gay couples this week even though same-sex marriage officially became legal in the state on Monday.
Some were defiant, while others were unsure what to do because of a letter issued Sunday by the state’s chief justice, Roy Moore, who ordered probate judges not to issue licenses. The letter prompted confusion and sparked debate over the state’s right to ignore the federal judiciary.
While hundreds of couples were able to get licenses in a few places such as Huntsville and Montgomery, about 200 were turned away elsewhere, gay rights groups said, with the most high-profile confrontation taking place in Mobile.
Harry Satterwhite, Davis’s *at*torney, said the probate judge is “not taking sides in the national debate over same-sex marriage. He is simply trying to follow the law under some very difficult circumstances.”
Critics of same-sex marriage say questions still remain that must be sorted out before it is clear that the probate judges must issue the licenses. On Wednesday, a group of conservative policy organizations in Alabama asked the Alabama Supreme Court to weigh in on the officials’ responsibility.
“We still need a ruling, no matter what it is, from the Alabama Supreme Court,” said Mat Staver, chairman of the Liberty Counsel, a public interest law firm representing the groups as well as more than a half-dozen probate judges.
But gay rights groups say Granade’s ruling should clear up any lingering confusion. The ruling follows a statement earlier in the week from the governor, who said he will not punish any probate judges who issue marriage licenses to gay couples. Officials in about a dozen counties that initially refused to issue licenses had changed course even before Thursday’s ruling, concluding that they had a legal obligation to issue them.
“We’re very happy that our plaintiffs and other same-sex couples in Mobile can now obtain marriage licenses and the protections of marriage, and we hope this will provide sufficient guidance to probate judges in other parts of the state,” said Shannon Minter, legal director for the *National Center for Lesbian Rights, a nonprofit group that helped represent the four plaintiff couples in Thursday’s case.
In an interview with CNN early Thursday, Moore defended his directive that sparked the chaos.
“No judge of the United States or the federal district court has the right to invent the definition of marriage, which is not even contained in the United States Constitution, and that’s the problem,” Moore told host Chris Cuomo. “We have people going in trying to mandate the state of Alabama that the ‘sanctity of marriage’ amendment in our [state] Constitution is wrong, and that’s simply not right to do.”
