Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Supreme Court of Alabama Delays Same-Sex Marriages 25 Days

To no one’s surprise, the Supreme Court of Alabama is doing everything it can to avoid having to comply with the the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling mandating same-sex marriage nationwide. They’ve issued an order telling county judges not to issue any licenses to gay couples for 25 days, for a very disingenuous reason.

Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore said the state supreme court today issued an order that effectively keeps probate judges from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples for 25 days.

Moore said in his view the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Friday ending the gay marriage ban is now stalled in Alabama.

Parties have 25 days in which to contest the U.S. Supreme Court ruling before it becomes a mandate.

“In that 25-day period that (U.S. Supreme Court) order is not in effect,” Moore said. “The (Alabama Supreme Court order speaks for itself.”

Yes, technically the parties to a case (which Alabama is not) have 25 days to ask the Supreme Court for a rehearing. It never actually happens, of course. They just ruled, they aren’t going to change their mind in the next three weeks. And it’s extremely unlikely that either party will even ask for it. That’s why every virtually every other state is complying with the ruling now. But the theocratic bigots in Alabama will do anything they can even to delay justice for another few weeks.

They may also be buying some time to decide whether to get really defiant and issue an order telling judges and clerks not to comply with the decision at all, which would provoke a game of legal chicken that will end as badly for Alabama as it did the last time they tried it in the 50s and 60s. Hey guys, you know how the world thinks of George Wallace today as an arch-villain who opposed civil rights? You look like that too.

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