The Alabama Senate has recently passed a bill 26-0 that would eliminate marriage licenses signed by a judge because of some conservative judges refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, according to AL.com
The bill was sponsored by Senator Greg Albritton who said that the bill “takes the state out of granting permission, saying who can marry or who can’t.” He also mentioned during a floor debate that the bill was designed to resolve conflicts with probate judges who refused to issue marriage licenses in response to the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court Ruling. Albritton has mentioned that at least ten probate judges have stopped issuing marriage licenses after the ruling. That’s rather immature, don’t you think?
The way that the process would work is that couples seeking to marry would submit an affidavit to their local probate judge who would then record the marriage, making the marriage take place on the same day as the signing of the affidavit. Because there wouldn’t be any licenses involved, there wouldn’t be a need for a wedding ceremony.
Because the bill passed unanimously in the Senate, it will now be voted on by the Alabama House of Representatives. If they get enough votes then I suppose marriage licenses in Alabama will be a thing of the past. What I don’t understand is how two consenting adults marrying each other has any effect on the probate judges’ lives or how a same-sex wedding is at all a bad thing. I guess people really love their reactionary politics…
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h/t: AL.com
FWIW, he’s tried this four times before and failed to bring it to a vote. I don’t see this thing succeeding now.