MOBILE, Ala. -- As probate courts around Alabama opened Friday, a day after a federal judge barred the probate judge in Mobile County from denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples, a realization began to sink in among many that a week-long judicial row was coming to a close.
"After yesterday's ruling, it seems inevitable," said Probate Judge Rocky Ridings of Marion County, in the northwestern part of the state. "There's no point in making attorneys rich and going on to lose anyway."
Like many probate judges reached Friday, Ridings said he was still going to talk with his lawyer about his options but that he would probably begin issuing marriage licenses to all couples, straight and gay, next week.
This week, for him and others, has been confounding.
Judge Callie V.S. Granade of U.S. District Court ruled in January that the state's same-sex marriage ban was unconstitutional, and as of Monday, that ruling was to be in effect. But on Sunday night, the chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, Roy Moore, ordered probate judges not to comply, arguing that the federal ruling did not apply to them because, among other things, probate judges were not defendants in that case.
On Thursday, however, Granade ordered Probate Judge Don Davis of Mobile County to comply with her earlier ruling, which apparently sent a signal to many of the other judges around the state.
"You got the federal judge here on the left and the chief justice on the right, and here I am in the middle," said Probate Judge Leon Archer of Tallapoosa County, who ceased issuing any licenses this week but will pick up again next week, giving licenses to straight and gay couples. "I have my beliefs, but in my office I have to put those aside."
A tally of probate courts Friday by Freedom to Marry, a group that advocates for the rights of gays to marry, put the number of counties issuing or planning to issue marriage applications to same-sex couples at 47 out of 67. That had nearly doubled since Thursday.
The remaining 20 counties are those that are issuing licenses only to straight couples, those that are issuing no licenses at all and those for which the policy was unknown.
Some judges said Thursday's ruling did not definitively settle the confusion.
"I took an oath to uphold federal and state, and right now I feel like I'm still under state because there's not been a federal ruling to me," said Probate Judge Ryan Robertson of Cleburne County, who added that his personal convictions affected his decision not to issue licenses to same-sex couples.
Until he received a federal order addressed to or concerning him or his county, Robertson said, he would keep that policy in place.
Mathew Staver is a chairman of the Liberty Counsel, a conservative policy group that is representing several probate judges who are continuing to issue licenses to straight couples only. Staver said Friday that the federal ruling concerned only one judge in one county and argued that the state law banning same-sex marriage was still in effect in the rest of the state.
"They're still bound by state law," he said.
Lawyers for same-sex couples who have sued for marriage rights said after Thursday's ruling that they would not hesitate to bring legal action in other counties if probate judges continued to deny licenses to same-sex couples.
"If we have plaintiffs from another county that need redress against their local probate judges, we're happy to help," said David Kennedy, who represents Cari Searcy and Kimberly McKeand, a lesbian couple who were plaintiffs in the case that brought Granade's initial ruling.
A Section on 02/14/2015