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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAlabama same-sex marriage fight echoes states’ rights battles
MONTGOMERY, Ala. Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moores judicial building office overlooks Montgomerys Dexter Avenue, a history-soaked thoroughfare topped by the Alabama Capitol where Jefferson Davis was inaugurated president of the Confederacy and where the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. ended the 1965 march for voting rights.
As gay and lesbian couples left a nearby courthouse clutching marriage licenses last week, Moore, an outspoken critic of same-sex marriage, was fighting to stop the weddings using a states rights argument that conjured up those historical ghosts of slavery, the Civil War and the battle against desegregation.
There has been resistance in other states to the tide of rulings allowing same-sex marriage. Some Florida clerks offices scrapped all marriage ceremonies rather than perform same-sex unions. In South Carolina and Georgia, legislation is being developed to let individual employees opt out of issuing marriage licenses to gay couples out of sincere religious belief.
No state, however, went as far as Alabama, where the 68-year-old Moore instructed the states probate judges not to issue marriage licenses to gay couples.
Its my duty to speak up when I see the jurisdiction of our courts being intruded by unlawful federal authority, Moore said.
http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2015/02/alabama-same-sex-marriage-fight-echoes-states-rights-battles/
sheshe2
(83,898 posts)William769
(55,147 posts)sheshe2
(83,898 posts)etherealtruth
(22,165 posts)... to make sure they are on the wrong side of every major issue.
William769
(55,147 posts)Manifestor_of_Light
(21,046 posts)Read the damn United States Constitution.
Constitutional Law is a REQUIRED course in law school. I know. I went to one.
Maven
(10,533 posts)Cha
(297,654 posts)"..In Tallahassee, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle responded by warning clerks choosing not to follow his ruling that they could face serious legal consequences in future lawsuits, including payment of costs and attorneys fees. All the clerks eventually complied without incident in early January.
History records no shortage of instances when state officials defied federal court orders on issues of federal constitutional law, Hinkle wrote in the New Years Day order. Happily, there are many more instances when responsible officials followed the law, like it or not.
Mahalo William
William769
(55,147 posts)Terra Alta
(5,158 posts)Roy Moore is a total asshat. What part of "federal courts trump state courts" does this POS not understand? Can't wait to see his head explode when SCOTUS rules in favor of marriage equality.
William769
(55,147 posts)Behind the Aegis
(53,986 posts)We need to be vigilant, as things are likely going to ramp up. However, we need to celebrate victories when they come.
Congrats to Alabama!