Alabama Federal Judge Chickens Out On Marriage Equality

[Webster]

...don't normally agree w/Think Progress much these days, but they're right in this instance...

(Think Progress) On Thursday, federal District Judge Callie Granade issued a long-anticipated series of orders explaining that, yes, the state of Alabama actually does have to comply with the United States Constitution, even if its state supreme court does not want to do so. One order certifies a class of plaintiffs consisting of all same-sex couples who have been denied their equal marriage rights in the state, and a defendant class of “[a]ll Alabama county probate judges who are enforcing or in the future may enforce Alabama’s laws barring the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples and refusing to recognize their marriages” — thus ensuring that Granade’s decisions will apply statewide to all same-sex couples who wish to marry. Another order enjoins the state’s probate judges, the officials who issue marriage licenses, “from enforcing the Alabama laws which prohibit or fail to recognize same-sex marriage.”

There is a catch, however; the later order is stayed until the Supreme Court hands down its own decision on marriage equality, most likely at the end of next month.

Granade’s most recent orders were necessary because of a strange game of chicken the Alabama Supreme Court began shortly after Granade initially held that Alabama could not constitutionally deny equal marriage rights to same-sex couples. Weeks after Granade’s initial decision, the Alabama Supreme Court effectively ordered the state’s probate judges to defy the federal judge’s decision, thus placing those judges between a rock and a hard place — they could either defy a federal court or they could defy the highest court in their state’s judicial system.


Judge Granade disposes of this problem in one of her recent orders, explaining that, while “It is true that if this Court grants the preliminary injunction the probate judges will be faced with complying with either Alabama’s marriage laws that prohibit same-sex marriage as they have been directed by the Alabama Supreme Court or with complying with the United States Constitution as directed by this Court,” that does not change the fact that, under the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, “the laws of the United States are ‘the supreme Law of the Land.’” When a federal court’s order interpreting the United States Constitution conflicts with a state court order, the federal court wins.

Yet, by staying her latest injunction until after the Supreme Court rules on this issue, Granade rewards the state supreme court’s intransigence. She effectively allows the state to violate the Constitution for another month before the justices — assuming that they rule in the way they arewidely expected to rule — issue a decision that will require the state to comply with the Constitution regardless. Alabama’s justices are highly unlikely to win their game of chicken in the long run, but, in the short term, Granade’s stay sends the message that defying a federal court is a viable tactic of resistance to equality.

In fairness, lower courts frequently do delay their resolution of issues that are pending before the Supreme Court out of legitimate concerns that the justices may issue a decision that conflicts with their own. This, however, is not the ordinary case. The Supreme Court has not simply signaled that it is likely to side with equality this June; it has allowed lower court orders siding with marriage equality — including Granade’s own order — to take effect in advance of the justices’ resolution of the same issue. This is not the Court’s ordinary practice in a case such as this one, and it is a signal to lower court judges that they should not delay resolution of their own marriage equality cases because the Supreme Court is still pondering the issue.

Granade’s order, it should also be noted, is not completely irrelevant. Because it will take effect immediately after the Supreme Court hands down its decision, same-sex couples that hope to benefit from the Supreme Court’s decision will not have to go through the hassle of obtaining another court order should the state continue to resist equality. Nevertheless, Granade could have been far more aggressive in ensuring that her orders would not be ignored.

When a party violates a court’s injunction, the judge can enforce that injunction by holding that party in contempt. Though many of the state’s probate judges were technically not subject to Grande’s orders until Thursday, they are now, and Granade has full power to hold them in contempt if they continue to defy the Constitution. Such a contempt order could require each probate judge who refuses to comply with the Constitution to pay a fine for each day that they do not obey the law, or it could even potentially subject them to imprisonment.

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

Tell me again why we need government involved in marriage? Oh thats right freebies from the government. And let me say it again, Contrary to what some say, there is no ban on same-sex marriage. Nothing about it is illegal. In all 50 states, two people of the same sex may choose to live together, choose to join a Church of some kind that blesses their relationship, and choose a workplace offering joint benefits. All is perfectly legal. The only thing government should be involved in is when that union or marriage decides to separate and it involves courts to decide how the assets gets distributed if it can not be worked out between the two people. This is the way it has always been until the 20th century, and that is the way it should be again. None of this gay marriage thing would be a issue overnight and our government that is fueling this divide would be out of the picture.

 

[The Infamous Gizmo]

Being (possibly) bisexual myself, I think this is just stupid. I agree with True Liberty's post: the only time that the government should get involved is when a couple decides to separate, dividing who gets what. I also hate when people claim it's a religious issue: I'm a Christian yet look at me, I'm the most normal person you can see who just happens to like both genders. And don't do that "you cannot be a Christian and be LGBT" crap, I simply refuse to believe that and that there's nothing wrong here with that. But on to the topic, I wish people would just not treat LGBT people like they're a different species and just realize them as normal human beings who are attracted to either the same sex, or both.