Even as advocates for marriage equality predict victory at the U.S. Supreme Court this spring, Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore is instructing state judges to defy a federal court’s order to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples, sparking what one law professor calls a “constitutional crisis.”
Moore, who gained notoriety after being kicked off the bench in 2003 for defying a federal court order to remove a 2.6-ton Ten Commandments monument from his courthouse, has said for weeks that he would continue to recognize the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. Local media reported that, even before the order, at least five Alabama judges planned to deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples when the federal court order went into effect this week.
The above excerpt was originally published in Newsweek.
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