Alabama's top judge orders ban on same-sex marriage licenses

Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy S. Moore on Sunday night ordered local judges to ignore federal court orders to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples starting on Monday.

Last week, a federal appeals court declined to impose a stay of a U.S. district judge's ruling in January to strike down the state's same-sex marriage ban as unconstitutional, the Los Angeles Times reports, and beginning on Monday, marriage licenses to same-sex couples were supposed to start being issued. In his administrative order, Moore wrote that if judges don't follow his directive, the state's Republican Gov. Robert Bentley would "ensure the execution of the law."

Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, told the Times that Moore is "the ayatollah of Alabama," and "much better suited to being the chief pastor of Alabama than he is being the chief justice of Alabama." Human Rights Campaign legal director Sarah Warbelow said in a statement that Moore should be sanctioned, and this is a "pathetic, last-ditch attempt at judicial fiat by an Alabama Supreme Court justice — a man who should respect the rule of law rather than advance his personal beliefs."

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