Alabama county halts all marriages after same-sex ruling
The state of marriage in Alabama was thrown into confusion Wednesday as probate judges struggled to decide whether to follow the state high court's ruling banning same-sex weddings or a federal judge's earlier order to issue licenses.
The Alabama Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the state's ban on same-sex marriage is legal despite a federal court's decision to the contrary. The all-Republican Supreme Court sided with a pair of conservative groups and ordered Alabama's 68 probate judges to stop issuing marriage licenses to gay couples.
At least one probate office - in Mobile County, one of the state's largest - said it had quit issuing licenses altogether. It was unclear what judges in the state's other 66 counties would do.
