Alabama marriage carnival goes on

Timothy Kincaid

March 19th, 2015

bama

Since our last update, the marriage situation in Alabama has continued to whirl and twirl to a wild caliope tune.

Mobile County Probate Judge Davis, having been told by the Alabama Supreme Court that he was not exempt from their order to discriminate against same-sex couples, turned back to Federal Judge Granade. He noted that the plaintiffs in the case have all gotten married now, and requested that she put a stay on her order so as to keep him from having to defy one court or the other.

Judge Granade didn’t let him off the hook. She said, no dear, it’s isn’t much good that you’ve issued the licenses if the state won’t recognize them. And really you haven’t given me any reason why my ruling shouldn’t be upheld, so go on now and do what you’ve been told.

So Davis is refusing to issue marriage licenses to anyone.

But his problems didn’t stop there. Part of the marriage lawsuit was driven by Cari Searcy, one of the plaintiffs, desire to adopt the child that she and Kim McKeand had raised since birth. Alabama doesn’t allow second-parent adoption, but now that she’s married to the mother, she should be eligible.

But the state is refusing to recognize the marriage so Davis tried to enact partial compliance. He issued an interlocutory decree granting Searcy temporary parental rights but said he would not rule on the adoption itself until after the Supreme Court made it’s decision.

Searcy’s attorneys then sued Davis for failure to follow the order of the Federal Judge. But Davis used this to his advantage. He noted that he’s now a party to the suit and therefore no longer impartial and recused himself from the review of the adoption and asked the Alabama Supreme Court to give him a replacement for the case.

But, Searcy’s attorneys claim, a change in 2001 would have the replacement made by the presiding circuit judge. The matter is unclear because there is uncertainty whether the 2001 change applies to probate judges. This will undoubtedly delay the adoption further.

Meanwhile, Judge Granade has made her first ruling on the request by plaintiffs to add additional plaintiffs and to make the case class action. Attorney General Luther Strange had argued that too much time had passed, but Granade didn’t buy that.

She ruled that the case could be amended to allow additional plaintiffs and defendants.

There being no substantial reason to deny leave to amend, the court must allow the amendment. Accordingly, Plaintiffs’ motion for leave to file a second amended complaint (Doc. 76) is hereby GRANTED.

However, she did not rule on whether the case would be made class action.

Thus, although the court may dismiss class allegations “[w]here it is facially apparent from the pleadings that there is no ascertainable class,” …, the court finds that the Plaintiffs in this case have alleged adequate facts to support a potential class claim and the court will not engage in a detailed and rigorous analysis of the class claims until all of the current parties have had the opportunity to oppose or support the motion for class certification.

Grenade has given Strange until March 23rd to tell her why “all persons in Alabama who wish to obtain a marriage license in order to marry a person of the same sex and to have that marriage recognized under Alabama law, and who are unable to do so because of the enforcement of Alabama’s laws prohibiting the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples and barring recognition of their marriages” is an ill-defined class definition.

It seems rather unlikely that Strange will convince Judge Granade that this class of people is vague and ill-defined. And it seems rather likely that Judge Granade will determine that her ruling applies to all such couples. This will eliminate all ambiguity about the extent and scope of the Federal ruling and may set the state on course for a showdown with the Federal government.

And then we will see what the Alabama Supreme Court has to say.

Ta Ta Dixie

March 19th, 2015

Give ’em what they want. Why not start a petition to have tAlabama thrown out of The Union?. It shouldn’t take too long to get enough signatures. Don’t like the laws of the Federal Government? So long, assholes. Let them have their own little white Christian Nation with Judge Moore as their Holy Hetro Hero leading them to glory with sword and Bible raised high.

If we start with them, maybe we can then stop enabling Texas too.

MattNYC

March 20th, 2015

Speaking of marriage Equality, here’s head scratcher…

https://www.yahoo.com/parenting/daughter-of-two-moms-comes-out-against-gay-113987192687.html

Because she had a loser of a dad, gays can’t get married???

Nathaniel

March 20th, 2015

Timothy, the SCOA has made very clear that they don’t give one hoot about what Judge Granade or any other Federal Judge (aside, perhaps, from Scalia) has to say on the matter of marriage. I wouldn’t be surprised if, after Judge Granade updates her ruling to include all same-sex couples, they merely point to their previous determination as sufficient. The real question is whether this would grind all marriages in Alabama to a halt, or if some probate judges would open their doors to everybody. I just wish more of them would have the courage to stand up to the SCOA.

Priya Lynn

March 20th, 2015

“Speaking of marriage Equality, here’s head scratcher…

https://www.yahoo.com/parenting/daughter-of-two-moms-comes-out-against-gay-113987192687.html

Because she had a loser of a dad, gays can’t get married???”.

Yes, it is really poor logic on her part. Banning gay marriage wouldn’t have prevented her situation for two reasons, her lesbian parents weren’t married, and her biological father and mother would have divorced for reasons unrelated to her mother’s orientation. Plus, who’s she to decide for all those happy children of same sex parents that they shouldn’t have married parents? I loathed my heterosexual parents and would have gladly traded them for same sex parents, does that mean I should demand only same sex parents be allowed to marry?

Timothy Kincaid

March 20th, 2015

PL,

Yes, it really is illogical. You could put any other couple in its place and immediately see the absurdity.

“I was raised by dentists and so dentists shouldn’t be allowed to marry”

“I was raised by Southern Baptists and so Southern Baptists shouldn’t be allowed to marry”

MattNYC

March 20th, 2015

And a very positive note on ME, watch video at the bottom of this article:

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Vocal-priest-Fr-Iggy-breaks-rank-to-vote-Yes-in-gay-marriage-referendum.html#

I was surprised to not see (or did I miss?) coverage on the Irish Marriage Equality referendum–this was the first I heard about it (h/t to “Gay Politics” e-mails).

Timothy Kincaid

March 21st, 2015

Matt,

We haven’t covered Ireland’s upcoming vote the way we should have. I apologize.

Lord_Byron

March 21st, 2015

What a clusterfuck

MattNYC

March 23rd, 2015

Timothy,

No need for an apology. :) I know it’s an all-volunteer operation and it’s probably more important to focus on the negative actions against us (so we can re-/pro-act) except when something good becomes official (like many of the recent victories in Europe).

I have to say that the overall Irish news lately has been amazing. I almost fell off the couch hearing stories on NPR about both the Boston and NYC St. Pat’s parades making positive steps towards gay participation AND also finding out that ME may very well pass in their “motherland.” (I love the fact that gays have been an official part of THE St. Pat’s parade in Dublin for many years, while the idiots in charge here obsess over it.)

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