Alabama Won't Defy U.S. Supreme Court on Homosexual 'Marriage' But Added This Last Word

Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, Roy Moore, has tried to protect Christians who oppose the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that two people of the same sex have a constitutional right to call themselves married. He issued a memo ordering judges to enforce state law that affirms marriage as the union between one man and one woman:

“Until further decision by the Alabama Supreme Court, the existing orders of the Alabama Supreme Court that Alabama probate judges have a ministerial duty not to issue any marriage license contrary to the Alabama Sanctity of Marriage Amendment or the Alabama Marriage Protection Act remain in full force and effect.”

The legislature also attempted to protect Christians by passing a religious exemption bill, but it died in chamber.

And now the Alabama Supreme Court has spoken on this issue but acknowledged the non-constitutional basis of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision. The state’s highest court dismissed motions to defy the U.S. Supreme Court ruling. But Justice Michael Bolin added this (emphasis added):

“In light of the United States Supreme Court’s decision of Obergefell v. Hodges, in which a 5-4 majority declared, without any constitutional basis, that same-sex applicants have a fundamental constitutional right to marriage, I concur in dismissing the ‘Motion for Clarification and Reaffirmation of the Court’s Orders Upholding and Enforcing Alabama’s Marriage Laws,'”

Just as the U.S. Constitution doesn’t grant women the right to kill their unborn babies, the founding document doesn’t grant two men the right to be married.

Justice Bolin contended that he reluctantly concurred “in dismissing the petitioners’ motions, and I further concur specially to note that the process of licensing of marriages in Alabama as we have known it may have been irreparably broken.”

Photo credit: Matt Popovich (Creative Commons) – Public Domain