Four same-sex couples in Mobile, Alabama have asked U.S. District Judge Callie Granade to order Mobile County Probate Judge Don Davis to issue marriage licenses.
Earlier today, Davis stopped issuing marriage licenses to all couples rather than start issuing them to same-sex couples.
In their request to Judge Granade, the couples explained that each of them appeared at the Davis’s Mobile offices and were denied marriage licenses. The couples’ request explains that they are suffering serious harm each day that they continue to be excluded from marriage.
The Alabama couples are James Strawser and John Humphrey—who previously obtained a ruling from Judge Granade declaring that Alabama’s exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage is unconstitutional—and Meredith Miller and Anna Lisa Carmichael, Robert Povilat and Milton Persinger, and Kristy Simmons and Marshay Safford. The couples are represented by the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), Birmingham attorney Heather Fann, and the ACLU of Alabama.
Said NCLR Legal Director Shannon P. Minter: “While many same-sex couples in Alabama were able to marry today, many others were denied that basic freedom. We are hopeful that a ruling on this motion will provide clarity regarding the obligations of probate judges across the state and correct the misunderstanding generated by Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who has erroneously instructed those judges not to comply with the requirements of the federal Constitution. We are confident that all Alabamians, regardless of where in the state they live, will soon enjoy the freedom to marry.”
Read the emergency motion below via Equality Case Files:
1:14-cv-00424 #43 by Equality Case Files
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