U.S. District Judge Callie V.S. Granade today issued an order confirming
that her injunction directing all Alabama probate judges to issue
marriage licenses to same-sex couples is now in effect and requires
immediate compliance. A violation of Judge Granade’s order could result
in a county probate judge being held liable for contempt of court,
attorneys’ fees, financial penalties, and any other remedies the court
deems proper.
In today’s order, Judge Granade stated: “by the
language set forth in the order, the preliminary injunction is now in
effect and binding on all members of the Defendant Class.” In that May 21
preliminary-injunction order, Judge Granade directed all Alabama
probate judges to stop enforcing the state’s marriage ban – effective
immediately after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling affirming marriage
equality. The Supreme Court issued its decision last Friday, so the
injunction prohibiting enforcement of the ban went into effect that day.
Although
most of Alabama’s county probate judges are issuing marriage licenses
to same-sex couples, a minority are not. So the civil rights groups
representing the plaintiffs in the federal class-action lawsuit asked
Judge Granade to confirm that her order is now in effect. She
immediately granted the request, issuing today’s order that all probate
judges must issue licenses to same-sex couples under the same terms and
conditions that they are issued to opposite-sex couples.
The four
organizations representing the plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit
are the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama, Americans United for
Separation of Church and State, the National Center for Lesbian Rights
and the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The lawsuit—Strawser v. Strange—was
brought by five same-sex couples. It initially resulted in an order
from Judge Granade requiring the issuance of marriage licenses to
same-sex couples in Mobile County. The order was expanded in Granade’s May 21 order to cover all Alabama counties.
Read the order.