Imagine trying to plan a wedding, only to find out that your right to marry has been placed in limbo.
That’s exactly what happened to two couples in Mobile County, Alabama last week after the Alabama Supreme Court effectively stopped local officials Alabama from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The one county that wasn’t covered in their order was Mobile County, but Mobile County Probate Judge Don Davis refused to issue marriage licenses. Starting the day after the Alabama Supreme Court ruling he has denied licenses to both gay and straight couples.
On Friday, March 6 two couples – Julie & Dottie and April & Molly – went to pick up marriage licenses in Mobile County. They weren’t served.
The Alabama Supreme Court ruling is a direct challenge to several orders in favor of marriage equality by U.S. District Judge Callie Granade. Both the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to stay Granade’s original order, and marriage equality was supposed to go into effect statewide on February 9.
The state Supreme Court’s order halting marriages for gay couples came as a surprise to advocates, who see the move as violating the supremacy clause in the U.S. Constitution, which delineates that state judges are bound by the U.S. Constitution. Since it was interpreted that the Constitution guarantees marriage rights for same-sex couples in a federal jurisdiction covering Alabama, it follows that state judges and other officials must comply with that interpretation.
“Whenever state law conflicts with federal law, federal law wins,” David Kennedy, one of the attorneys in the case that struck down the marriage ban, told AL.com.
A group of legal organizations led by National Center for Lesbian Rights has petitioned to amend a federal lawsuit, making it class action. This means that another ruling would make clear (again) that the fundamental right to marry should be enjoyed by couples in every Alabama county.
April and Molly met after “literally running into one another,” as April puts it.
“I turned a corner in a restaurant and ran into Molly. We started talking and shortly went out on our first date,” April says. “We have been together ever since.”
Though they’ve been together for seven years, the couple waited to marry until they could do so in Alabama, where they live.
“Marriage is important to us for just the simple equal rights: filing taxes together, making medical decisions, having powers of attorney,” says April.
After attempting to get a marriage license in two different counties last week, Molly and April expected to be denied on March 6. They decided to try again anyway as a way of showing that they know they’re equal citizens under the law.
“We were told we could legally marry, and we must not let them take that away from us.”
Dottie and Julie were planning a summer wedding, but decided they would try to get a license in Mobile County much sooner, following the state Supreme Court’s ruling that put marriage equality in limbo in Alabama. On Wednesday, March 4, the couple went to apply for a marriage license, knowing that they might be denied.
“I wanted them to tell me ‘no’ to my face,” Julie told AL.com.
Two days later they joined Molly and April to again apply for a license, hoping for a better outcome.
“We believe that we must continue putting pressure on those individuals who govern us by using our own visibility and our love for one another,” Julie says.
Being denied the right to marry has complicated their wedding plans.
“We are not sure exactly when we will get married or where,” Julie says. “We would like to stay in Alabama where our families live. This situation with the courts and the rulings or orders makes it extremely difficult to plan one of the happiest days of our relationship together.”
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