Maybe not far behind. A decision from the 5th Circuit is pending and could come any day. Texas was actually more than a year ahead of Alabama in terms of nullifying the ban on SSM at the federal district court level. Texas just has had a much longer stay of that decision.
Welcome to the fold, Alabama. It doesn’t sound like it’s been going smoothly, but at least some same sex couples have been able to get married. Congratulations!
Each couple that marries should mail a photo of the ceremony directly to Roy Moore’s office, just to piss him off
So has anybody been paying attention to the story of “7 BRIDES FOR 7 WIVES: or, putting the Dicks in Dixie Queens”? Gay marriage has been introduced to Alabama and it is a gorram zoo of compliance and non-compliance and the Return of Roy Moore. I’m loving it.
I’ll see if there’s any interest before going into more detail.
Mail one showing a big ol’ slobbery kiss too, just to get him excited.
Just dropped this in the mail today:
February 12, 2015
Chief Justice Roy S. Moore
Supreme Court of Alabama
300 Dexter Ave.
Montgomery AL 36104
Dear Chief Justice Moore:
In light of your recent high-profile intervention in the same sex marriage controversy in Alabama, I thought this little refresher might be useful:
Article VI.
…This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States (emphasis added).
You’re welcome.
Very truly yours,
[my real name and address]
Moore’s probably a Tenther, though.
A Federal court has ruled. Even a Tenther is SOL.
Of course there’s interest! Sex, the South, and Crazy Roy Moore! You’ve got three high powers buttons right there!
Would love to have your take on it. We only get faint echoes of the craziness up here.
What’s hysterical, if only to me, is how much he’s squawking about Dred Scott and Plessy v. Ferguson as examples of the SCotUS overstepping and ignoring the fact that Alabama applauded and followed both (except for the “equal” part in Plessy v. Ferguson, but they more than atoned by enforcing the separate).
The NPR reporter yesterday delicately said, “Chief Justice Moore doesn’t appreciate comparisons to George Wallace.”
A moment to praise a hero in this: Probate Judge John Hulett of Lowndes County
Lowndes is a rural county directly south of Montgomery in the central part of the state. It is and has always been a plutocratic dead-center-of-the-Black-Belt cotton producing county with huge plantations, a tiny white rich minority and a large impoverished black majority (currently the county is 75% black with a per capita income of $18,000). Rich old white people, rural folks, and working class and impoverished blacks have been among the most resistant to gay marriage being legalized.
Which is why Probate Judge Hulett is such a breath of fresh air:
He’s at least a second generation maverick: his late father was the first black man in Lowndes County to register to vote under Jim Crow and the first black man elected to public office (sheriff and later probate judge).
Speaking of probate judges in Alabama, we’re one of the many states that does not require them to have a college degree, let alone a law degree, and so few of them have formal training in the law and some literally have GED.s.
I keep wondering how these people can resist the law, knowing that they will look exactly like the anti-integration protestors in the 1960’s. But it occurs to me that the people who are actively resisting marriage equality, particularly in the Deep South, may not have as much contempt for the anti-integration people as I do.
As they proved for two centuries with the light skinned slave children on plantations, conservative southerners are skilled at not seeing striking resemblances they don’t want to notice.
An irony is that two of the big stories on the local news are of whatever is happening in the marriage wars that day and of the preparations for the 50th anniversary of the Selma March.
Probably some of them *do *see the resemblance and are proud of it.
That’s something a lot of people don’t get: a lot of people, even if they aren’t open about it in mixed company, DO BELIEVE things were much better before the Civil Rights Era, so they’re not insulted by comparisons.
I am wondering if Roy Moore can or will get into any trouble for his actions of the past few weeks. Surely a state Chief Justice telling probate judges to ignore the rulings of a Federal court has to have some kind of repercussion. He also used selections from the Bible and referenced “our Lord” several times in his letter to the governor advising him not to comply, which he wrote in his capacity as Chief Justice (and on letterhead with his titles, etc.).
I’m hoping some LEO will find a rationale to slap Moore in jail for a while.