Alabama Judge Defies Gay Marriage Law
In The New York Times, Alan Blinder writes, “In a dramatic show of defiance toward the federal judiciary, Chief Justice Roy S. Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court on Sunday night ordered the state’s probate judges not to issue marriage licenses to gay couples on Monday, the day same-sex marriages were expected to begin here.” Justice Moore’s conservatism became national news in the early 2000s after he refused to remove a Montgomery monument of the Ten Commandments. “My guess is that is actually the way Roy Moore sincerely understands the federal-state relationship,” says Professor Joseph Smith at the University of Alabama. “He’s also an elected politician, and he knows who his constituency is.”