That's why they want marriage licenses issued to all couples immediately.
"There's nothing to say to it - he's insane", said Cassidy Lamb, who said she was in disbelief that the issue came up months after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage last summer.
"An order issued by a court with jurisdiction over the subject matter and person must be obeyed by the parties until it is reversed by orderly and proper proceedings", he explained. "This disparity affects the administration of justice in this state".
The Southern Poverty Law Center called Moore's order a "dead letter". Justice Roy Moore made the stunning announcement, not as the Chief Justice but in his role as the Administrative Head of the Unified Judicial System of Alabama. On a Sunday night last February, hours before same-sex marriages were scheduled to begin in the state, he issued a similar order to probate judges, most of whom defied the edict. So you can try to find some loop hole or some unsubstatiated case law that's not going to stand up in any federal court, it is not going to stand up anywhere challenged.
Stoll said that any probate judge who follows the order from Moore would be in violation of the federal court order and put themselves at risk for contempt sanctions. Washington County Probate Judge Nick Williams praised Moore.
He was re-elected as Alabama chief justice in 2012.
"I expect we will start up again soon", Ragland said. A federal court has to go through each of the other states with bans on same-sex marriage one by one and instruct each of them that their bans are invalid. In January 2015, Judge Ginny Granade, with the U.S. District Court ruled that the state's marriage ban was not constitutional.
As previously reported, in 2013, two lesbians in the state sued Gov. Robert Bentley, Attorney General Luther Strange and Mobile County Probate Judge Don Davis-among others-in an attempt to overturn Alabama's marriage amendment after one of the women was denied from adopting the other woman's child. "If probate judges violate the injunction, they can be held in contempt".
Hillary Clinton has slammed the Alabama chief justice's "unconstitutional" order to halt gay marriage licenses. "'I think it sets a bad example when the chief justice behaves like this, ' Reed said".
Kim Hong-ji Reuters
