Alabama Supreme Court tosses petitions opposing gay marriage; justices argue impact
The Alabama Supreme Court on Friday dismissed petitions by conservative groups opposed to same-sex marriage, leading to a debate between two concurring justices on the impact of their action.
The court dismissed the petitions in an 11-word order, report the Associated Press and AL.com. Chief Justice Roy Moore asserted in a concurrence (PDF) that the dismissal left intact a past order by the court directing probate judges not to issue same-sex marriage licenses. A press release by Liberty Counsel took Moore’s assertion as true.
But another concurring justice, Greg Shaw, disagreed. “The law is well settled that this court can do nothing to allow the probate court judges of this state to ignore a federal court injunction and a Supreme Court decision,” he wrote in his concurrence.
And a lawyer for the conservative Alabama Policy Institute, Eric Johnston, interpreted the dismissal as a defeat for the group’s bid to defeat gay marriage in the state. Johnston told the AP that the court’s order “effectively ends the case” and “appears to give us no option.”
Moore and another justice, Tom Parker, used their concurrences to blast the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision finding a constitutional right to gay marriage in Obergefell v. Hodges.
Moore wrote that Obergefell is “an immoral, unconstitutional and tyrannical opinion.”
“The general principle of blind adherence to United States Supreme Court opinions as ‘the law of the land’ is a dangerous fallacy that is inconsistent with the United States Constitution,” Moore said.
Parker called Obergefell “the latest example of judicial despotism.” The decision “conclusively demonstrates that the rule of law is dead,” he wrote.
Three other justices stressed in a concurrence that any explanation for a vote given by a concurring justice represents only that justice’s view. One of those justices, Michael Bolin, said in a separate concurrence that he didn’t agree with Obergefell but he conceded that it was binding authority.
Randall Marshall, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama, told the AP that most Alabama counties are already issuing same-sex marriage licenses and “I don’t think we will see any change going forward.”
