Alabama Orders Halt to Gay Marriage

Alabama’s Supreme Court put a halt to the issuance of same-sex marriage licenses Tuesday. The special ruling came after a federal court judge ruled the state’s gay marriage ban unconstitutional, prompting Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore to issue an order banning judges from issuing the licenses. On Feb. 9, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to stay the federal judge’s Alabama decision allowing same-sex marriage until it does rule, which many took to mean that Alabama had to comply. “Throughout the entirety of its history, Alabama has chosen the traditional definition of marriage,” the Alabama high court said in a per curiam opinion, issued in the name of the court. “That fact does not change simply because the new definition of marriage has gained ascendancy in certain quarters of the country, even if one of those quarters is the federal judiciary.”