Alabama became the 37th state to legalize same-sex marriage yesterday.
Couples throughout Alabama have been applying for – and receiving – marriage licenses. But some judges are refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses, despite the threat of steep penalties.
Meredith Bagley and Alexandrea Davenport, both faculty at the University of Alabama, were married in Vermont five years ago, but they wanted to get an Alabama marriage license now that same-sex marriage is legal.
But when they went in to apply at the Tuscaloosa County Courthouse yesterday morning?
“We had barely gotten a sentence in saying that we would like to request a marriage license and we were told that they would not be performing same-sex marriages today or issuing licenses today, and we were handed those letters.”
Those letters were copies of Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore’s letter to all Alabama county probate judges. Moore sent the letter out Sunday evening; it states that no probate judge in the State of Alabama may issue or recognize a marriage license inconsistent with Article 1, Section 36.03 of the Alabama Constitution. That is, the same-sex marriage ban that was just declared federally unconstitutional.
Richard Cohen is the president of the Southern Poverty Law Center. He says there’s no legal validity to Moore’s argument, and that the letter only serves to increase confusion in the state.
“Justice Moore is playing a very, very dangerous game. If he wants to preach, he ought to become a pastor. If he wants to be the chief justice of Alabama, he ought to follow the law and act prudently rather than issuing statements of defiance.”
Cohen says that any probate judges that refuse to issue same-sex marriage licenses are putting themselves at risk of expensive lawsuits. The Southern Poverty Law Center has recently filed several ethics complaints against Chief Justice Moore and says the Judicial Inquiry Committee, the same group that kicked Justice Moore out of office in 2003, may levy sanctions or even stiffer penalties against him.
Voters in Birmingham will head to the polls today to decide whether or not to raise property taxes in Birmingham.
The City’s school system is hoping voters will approve the measure. If the tax increase is passed, the additional money will be used to add a preschool classroom to every Birmingham City elementary school.
Randall Woodfin is the president of the Birmingham City Board of Education. He says the money will also expand fine art programs and foreign language instruction.
“We’re talking about the average home owner paying no more than $1.83 a month which is a small investment and in return is a pre-k classroom in every elementary school for our children as well as all the fine arts in our schools. This is an important moment not only for our school system but for the city and we should invest in this so the return is not only an improvement in the school system but the quality of life in the city of Birmingham.”
If the property tax increase is approved, it will collect nearly $8 million annually. It will be in place for the next 30 years and the school board will begin collecting funds in October of 2016.
The Alabama Department of Corrections is investigating after an inmate was stabbed to death at the Elmore County Correctional Facility.
Authorities say 33 year old inmate William Shepherd was stabbed by another inmate Sunday afternoon in the prison yard. Shepherd was later pronounced dead.
40 year old Lenell Carter III, another inmate at the prison was detained as a possible suspect in the stabbing.
The Elmore County Correctional Facility has been on lockdown with extremely limited prisoner movement as a safety precaution.
The Alabama Department of Corrections has come under intense scrutiny lately for massive overcrowding in Alabama's prisons and accusations of substandard health care for inmates.