Judge Granade, a George W. Bush appointee, said in her ruling, "The Attorney General does not explain how allowing or recognizing the same-sex marriage between two consenting adults will prevent heterosexual parents or other biological kin from caring for their biological children. He proffers no justification for why it is that the provisions in question single out same-sex couples and prohibit them, and them alone, from marrying in order to meet that goal."
State Attorney General Luther Strange (R) immediately filed papers indicating that Alabama would fight the decision.
Yesterday, a federal appeals court denied the state's request for a stay on Judge Granade's decision. With the stay denied, same-sex couples in Alabama are scheduled to begin marrying next week; but Alabama officials aren't done fighting yet.
Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore has issued a memo to the state's probate judges telling them they are not required to follow the federal court's ruling.
"I hope this memorandum will assist weary, beleaguered, and perplexed probate judges to unravel the meaning of the actions of the federal district court in Mobile, namely that the rulings in the marriage cases do not require you to issue marriage licenses that are illegal under Alabama law."
He is claiming that Alabama is justified in ignoring Judge Granade's decision, explaining that he believes federal courts lack "constitutional authority" to make rulings on state laws.
Judge Moore also took his argument to Governor Robert Bentley (R), urging him to defy the federal court.
The state of Alabama has asked the Supreme Court to intervene before next week when same-sex couples are expecting to begin exercising their long-denied right to marry.
what eye thynk: State's rights advocates have backed ignoring federal laws/decisions before, though they have never actually acted on it as Alabama's Chief Justice Moore has. Federal courts have no system for enforcing their decisions, so, if Alabama's probate courts take Justice Moore's advice and refuse to follow the federal courts ruling, the status of same-sex couples will remain open to a war of interpretation between Alabama state law and the federal court, a war where one side refuses to acknowledge the other's preeminence.
The modern-day GOP increasingly refuses to recognize any opinion not their own. They have voted 54 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act. They have refused to raise the minimum wage. They have refused to accept the science of global warming. They have spent six years refusing to acknowledge the legitimacy of the Obama White House. Despite leading economists conviction that the GOP's trickle-down economic agenda does not work, Congressional Republicans' have continued to embrace it and their party's our-way-or-no-way-brand of government. I see it as a form of "polite" anarchy.
If Alabama continues to follow Washington Republicans' lead and refuses to accept the federal court's ruling, it appears the GOP may have finally found a way to make their trickle-down philosophy work.
Unfortunately, it's not only the country's economic health that is at risk from Justice Moore's actions, it is the foundation of our democracy.
We are a country protected by a 228 year old Constitution that superintends a system of statutes placing federal laws above state laws and state laws over local ordinances, along with federal, state and local courts charged with guaranteeing our Constitution continues to function as written. It is a system that creates a nation out of 50 disparate states. Without it, we become 50 tribes with loyalty only to those within our small circle. Without it, we become a nation of anarchists, united by nothing.
Without it, we become the Middle East.
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ReplyDelete"It is a system that created a nation out of 50 disparate states. Without it, we become 50 tribes with loyalty only to those within our small circle. Without it, we become a nation of anarchists, united by nothing."
ReplyDeleteHell's fire, ain't that what they got going on Iraq? Come to think of it, yes, yes it is.