Alabama court halts same-sex marriages
The probate court in one of Alabama's biggest counties says it won't issue any marriage licenses at all after the Alabama Supreme Court disagreed with a federal court and upheld the state's ban on same-sex marriage.
Mobile County's probate court posted a notice on its website Wednesday saying it is halting all marriages while it reviews the decision.
The announcement doesn't say how long that review might take. And it's still unknown what probate judges in Alabama's 66 other counties will do.
A federal judge had previously ordered Mobile County's probate judge to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
The all-Republican Alabama Supreme Court sided with a pair of conservative groups Tuesday night and ordered Alabama's probate judges to stop issuing marriage licenses to gay couples.
Six justices concurred in the 134-page opinion, which wasn't signed, but the court's most outspoken opponent of gay marriage, Chief Justice Roy Moore, recused himself.
Same-sex marriages began in some Alabama counties on Feb. 9 following a decision by U.S. District Judge Callie Granade of Mobile, who ruled that both Alabama's constitutional and statutory bans on same-sex marriage were unconstitutional.
Immediately after the judge's ruling, Moore told probate judges across the state they were not obliged to issue same-sex marriage licenses. His stance created widespread confusion, prompting some judges to refuse to issue the licenses and others to shut down their operations for all couples, gay and straight, until they could get a clear answer.