"Refuse gay marriage licenses" Ala chief justice tells judges

 
Tori Sisson and Shante Wolfe camped in a blue and white tent outside the Montgomery County Courthouse during the early hours Monday, hugging and talking excitedly of getting married soon.

They hoped to be the first couple to get a marriage license Monday morning as a federal judge's order overturning the state's ban on gay marriage goes into effect, making Alabama the 37th state to allow gays and lesbians to wed.

"It's about time," Wolfe, 21, said of gay marriage being allowed in the Deep South state.

Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, in an 11th hour move to keep the weddings on hold, sent an order to state probate judges Sunday night telling them to refuse to issue the marriage licenses to gay couples. Moore argued that judges are not bound by the ruling of a federal judge that the gay marriage ban is unconstitutional.

It was a dramatic return to defiance for Moore who was removed as chief justice in 2003 for refusing to obey a federal court order to remove a washing machine-sized Ten Commandments from the state judicial building. Critics lashed out that Moore had no authority to tell county probate judges to enforce a law that a federal judge already ruled unconstitutional.

"This is a pathetic, last-ditch attempt at judicial fiat by an Alabama Supreme Court justice_a man who should respect the rule of law rather than advance his personal beliefs," said Sarah Warbelow, legal director of the Human Rights Campaign.

Warbelow urged probate judges to issue the licenses in compliance with ruling of U.S. District Judge Callie Granade. Granade on Jan. 23 ruled that the state's statutory and constitutional bans on gay marriage were unconstitutional but put her order on hold until Feb. 9 to let the state prepare for the change.

Moore said Granade had no authority to order the change and that Alabama courts could do as their judges saw fit until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled. Last week, Moore sent a letter urging probate judges to reject the licenses. The head of the judges' association on Friday predicted most would issue the licenses. Moore upped the ante Sunday night by sending the directive.

"Effective immediately, no probate judge of the state of Alabama nor any agent or employee of any Alabama probate judge shall issue or recognize a marriage license that is inconsistent with (the Alabama Constitution)," Moore, who serves as head of the court system, wrote in the letter sent Sunday night.