Marriage Refusals

• Author: Wendy Davis
• Pages: 16-17

The Docket

EDITED BY KEVIN DAVIS / KEVIN.DAVIS@AMERICANBAR.ORG

National

Pulse

AFRICA STUDIO/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

16 || ABA JOURNAL JULY 2018

Alabama resident Gar y Wright II

was among the gay rights ac tivists who

waged a hard-fought campaign for the

right to marr y in the state.

The 46-year-old Navy veter an was

part of a class of plai nti s who obtained

an injunction from Senior U.S. Distr ict Judge Callie

V.S. Granade in Mobile, who ruled in early 2015 that

the state’s refusal to a llow same-sex couples to marry

violated the constitut ion. In June of that year, the

Supreme Court ruled on Obergefell v. Hodges, which

invalidated all s tate bans on same-sex marri ages on

constitut ional grounds.

But the battle in Alabama d idn’t end with that

decision. Instead, probate judges i n at least seven of

the deeply conservative st ate’s 67 counties are simply

refusing to issue ma rriage licenses to any couples,

same-sex or heterosex ual. Instead, those judges tell

people who want to get marr ied to go to other counties.

For Wright, who faced death threat s after he sued

for the right to marr y, the development is especially

vexing.

“There’s no reason to inconvenience us like th at,”

Wright says.

He adds that, despite the cour t battles, same-sex

couples still haven’t been able to achieve equa lity in

the state. “It breaks my hear t because we were so close,

and the rest of the countr y has moved on,” he says.

Faced with the impasse , lawmakers in the state are

considering revamping the mar riage procedure by

abolishing licenses altogether.

Instead, a bill propos ed by Republican Sen. Greg

Albritton would requi re couples who wish to marry to

fi le an a davit with their local counties.

“If we don’t change it, there will be some addit ional

lawsuits out there,” Albritton says. “I wou ld just as soon

solve it ourselves rather than go thr ough an additional,

costly court bat tle.”

Lawmakers in Indi ana, Kentucky, Missouri and

Montana have introduced similar me asures.

A WAY OUT

Supporters argue t hat the bills could protect public

o cials who say their religious beliefs prevent them

from signing their names t o same-sex marriage

licenses. The most famous exa mple is Kim Davis, the

clerk in Rowan County, Kentucky, who was jailed for

fi ve days for refusing to comply with a federal judge’s

Marriage Refusals

Despite the Supreme Court decision invalidating bans on

same-sex marriage, some states are still reluctant to go along

By Wendy Davis