Judicial ignorance
It is fair to say the US Supreme Court's (SCOTUS) recent groundbreaking decision to afford same-sex couples the right to marry has not been universally welcomed by our American cousins. For those of you who thought that Associate Justice Antonin Scalia's scathing dissent in the #loverules judgment would be the last intolerant or hypocritical word on the subject, you would have been wrong. Alabama has seen what was thought to be the beginning of a judicial resistance movement against the SCOTUS ruling after the chief justice of the state's Supreme Court ordered probate judges to deny issuing marriage licences to same-sex couples. Judge Roy Moore argued that same-sex marriage was 'invalid' in the Yellowhammer State after lawmakers passed a ban on such marriage, despite a federal judge striking down the state's prohibition on gay marriage in January. Now the same jurist, US District Judge Callie Granade, has ordered that all probate judges in the state must issue licences to gay couples. The order is the latest in a battle of wills between state and federal courts and is intended to resolve the protracted dispute over what probate judges are legally required to do. A number of Alabama counties, however, are continuing to ignore the SCOTUS and Granade rulings. One judge has even gone to the extraordinary measure of denying marriage licences to all couples, regardless of sexual orientation. Geneva County probate judge Fred Hamic told NBC News: 'It's against my religion to marry homosexuals,' before adding that Alabama law only says marriage licences 'may be issued' by probate judges. It remains to be seen how long judges such as Hamic and Moore can continue to stick their heads in the sand in a vain attempt to hold off the inevitable. Sweet home Alabama indeed.
It is fair to say the US Supreme Court's (SCOTUS) recent groundbreaking decision to afford same-sex couples the right to marry has not been universally welcomed by our American cousins.
For those of you who thought that Associate Justice Antonin Scalia's scathing dissent in the #loverules judgment would be the last intolerant or hypocritical word on the subject, you would have been wrong.
Alabama has seen what was thought to be the beginning of a judicial resistance movement against the SCOTUS ruling after the chief justice of the state's Supreme Court ordered probate judges to deny issuing marriage licences to same-sex couples.
Judge Roy Moore argued that same-sex marriage was 'invalid' in the Yellowhammer State after
lawmakers passed a ban on such marriage, despite a federal judge striking down the state's prohibition on gay marriage in January.
Now the same jurist, US District Judge Callie Granade, has ordered that all probate judges in the state must issue licences to gay couples.
The order is the latest in a battle of wills between state and federal courts and is intended to resolve the protracted dispute over what probate judges are legally required to do.
A number of Alabama counties, however, are continuing to ignore the SCOTUS and Granade rulings. One judge has even gone to the extraordinary measure of denying marriage licences to all couples, regardless of sexual orientation.
Geneva County probate judge Fred Hamic told NBC News: 'It's against my religion to marry homosexuals,' before adding that Alabama law only says marriage licences 'may be issued' by probate judges.
It remains to be seen how long judges such as Hamic and Moore can continue to stick their heads in the sand in a vain attempt to hold off the inevitable. Sweet home Alabama indeed.
