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description: After an eleventh-hour attempt by the state’s top judge to halt gay marriage, Alabama began issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples as planned on Monday.
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# Gay Marriage Starts in Ala., Despite Top Judge’s Order

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<!-- video src="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/eUK9b7it.m3u8" -->
## Video: Gay Marriage Starts in Ala., Despite Top Judge’s Order

[Watch (HLS stream): Gay Marriage Starts in Ala., Despite Top Judge’s Order](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/eUK9b7it.m3u8) (1:39)

![Gay Marriage Starts in Ala., Despite Top Judge’s Order](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/eUK9b7it/poster.jpg?width=720)

_Published 2015-02-09. After an eleventh-hour attempt by the state’s top judge to halt gay marriage, Alabama began issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples as planned on Monday._


---

Jul 27, 2023 5:54 PM UTC

---

## More From This Series

[All Videos](https://time.com/video/)

[Know Right Now: Alabama Supreme Court Contradicts Federal Gay Marriage Ruling](/video/c7BY7zFq/)

### Know Right Now: Alabama Supreme Court Contradicts Federal Gay Marriage Ruling

[Earnest on Obama and Gay Marriage](/video/kerFqKMb/)

### Earnest on Obama and Gay Marriage

[Gay Marriage in the Heartland](/video/VUW6L6iv/)

### Gay Marriage in the Heartland

---


## Transcript

After an 11th hour attempt by the state's top judge to halt gay marriage, Alabama began issuing marriage licenses to gay and **** couples as planned on Monday. Same sex couples in Alabama are saying I do this morning. The U. S. Supreme court voted 7 to 2 Monday. Denying Alabama's request for a stay on a federal decision making gay marriage legal in this state. The previous ruling which set February 9th as the day marriages between same sex couples would start in the state, had faced a challenge by Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice, Roy S. Moore. In an order to local judges Sunday, he wrote, effective immediately, no Probate Judge of the State of Alabama shall issue or recognize a marriage license that is inconsistent with state law.

He added, a marriage contracted. Contracted between the individuals of the same sex is invalid in this state. Moore is perhaps best known for installing the Ten Commandments monument in and Alabama State Judicial building. A move that got him removed as the state's Chief Justice in 2003 before be reelected to that post in 2012. As Time notes, Moore had previously written several letters and orders in opposition in gay marriage and has received backlash from legal scholars. Arguing he didn't have the authority to disregard a federal decision. His efforts also drew some comparisons to former Alabama Governor George Wallace, who in 1963 stood in the doorway of the University of Alabama in an attempt to block school integration in the state.

The state had asked the federal ruling legalizing gay marriage in the state be put on hold. Until the US Supreme Court hears four similar gay marriage cases. The court is expected to rule on those cases this summer.

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