In the state of Alabama, such a stunning panorama
As we witnessed wedding glamour like we’d never seen before
With their friends and families cheering, because love was persevering,
All despite the interfering of a certain Justice Moore
(He who put the Ten Commandments in his courthouse heretofore)
Most were happy… Never Moore.
He had claimed that his intrusion was to quiet the confusion;
With the Governor’s collusion, they were settling a score:
The majority had voted! Homophobia well noted,
“With this ruling”, Moore had gloated, “I’ll stop something I abhor!”
(Treating everybody equally, he truly did abhor)
Some are thoughtful… Never Moore.
But today the bells are chiming (and the Cuttlefish are rhyming)
So it’s less than perfect timing? It’s a win, we can’t ignore!
And it’s time for celebration in our quickly-freeing nation
And with bonus consternation for the bigot Justice Moore
(He’ll become the stuff of legend—how his name will grow in lore!)
Some did right… but never Moore!
The Bad News? Alabama Chief Justice Roy “Ten Commandments” Moore has ordered state probate judges to neither issue nor recognize marriage licenses for same sex couples. The Good News? They are ignoring him, and couples started getting married today (Oh, there’s also a poll at that link).
Some probate judges in the area have not been issuing licenses, but have been issuing applications, after Judge Roy Moore’s ruling came out Sunday evening.
However, the Madison County Probate Office issued 60 marriage licenses to same-sex couples on Monday. As of 2 p.m. 29 of those couples got married in Big Spring Park.
As many as one out of three same-sex couples who married in Huntsville Monday had been refused an application or license in other counties.
As you probably know by now, the US Supreme Court has allowed same-sex marriages to go ahead in Alabama (Thomas and Scalia, of course, dissenting).
Oh, yeah–that was what was great about this. Moore’s order was an intended end-around, arguing that the probate judges were under his state authority, and must obey him over the federal ruling (which, he said, bound the state’s attorney general, but not his judges). In the ostensible name of law and order (and tyranny of the majority), we have a state chief justice saying that the supreme court doesn’t control his state.
Except, he has not been ignored. Many probate judges in Alabama are following his directive and not issuing marriage licenses.
This is when there needs to be a lot of civil rights lawsuits, personally, against the asshole. And enforcement
The Alabama Supreme Court has a long history of defying the SCOTUS, and always on civil rights issues.
True, Shripathi Kamath–but every same sex marriage there was today was one more than in the past history of Alabama. And in at least one earlier state, the fact of “a bubble of marriages” that would be treated differently was an important argument in not denying equal treatment.
If your position is that something is better than nothing, and that same-sex marriage is inevitable, then yes. What is infuriating is that even the force of law is being resisted. It is one thing to bring down legal barriers, but when they have to be further supplemented by force, the victory is costlier thereby draining valuable reserves.
Unless there is a severe punishment for this, why won’t wingnuts continue to embark upon this? After all, what has it cost Moore by defying the SCOTUS?
Nothing.
I’m glad to hear that Moore is being defied. His contempt of a federal ruling ought to get him fired.
There are already suits filed, and there will be more. I am hopeful that there actually will be “severe punishment”. In a game of tectonic change, this is huge; in terms of people who have deserved equal treatment all along, it has to be achingly slow.
Less may be more, but let us hope that Moore is less…
You’re Cuttlemoderating me? :-)
if I pass muster, can you change that last ‘is’ to ‘may be’
And do give us editing capability….P L E A S E
I was not Cuttlemoderating! No idea why (or even whether) it got hung up.
A major surprise
Moore’s “law” no longer holds true
For Alabama
And there I was not unhopeful that when not Cuttlemoderating you’d at the very least not avoid correcting my comment! :-P
@10 and 11, Richard and Cuttlefish: PZ and Mano both have posts up about the spam filter acting wonky.
Semi-related anecdote: I used to work as a programmer on a large hospital software application. As part of the computerized patient registration process, the spouse’s information was also entered. In order to save the data entry clerk a few key strokes, the spouse’s sex was automatically filled in as the “opposite” of the patient. Several years ago that had to be reprogrammed to allow the clerk to enter the actual sex of the spouse. You might think that *sex* is not an important field to collect with regard to spouse. Name and contact information…yes. Sex… why? First, both spouses could be patients and the records would be linked. The correct sex would be necessary in each patient’s file. Second, there were also automated insurance claims. The identifying information for the policy holder and any patient being treated under that policy had to match the insurance company records in order for the claim to be paid. I’m guessing that insurance companies have had to modify their software too.
Now I’m imagining all of the pre-printed forms in places like Alabama where they are having to strike through gender-specific nouns and pronouns and hand write the appropriate word. Not that this is a bad thing, just interesting to contemplate as the paradigm changes.