Monday was an historic day in many parts of Alabama, but a day of disappointment in others.
For the first time, same-sex couples were allowed to be legally married in the state after a federal judge struck down Alabama’s law prohibiting same-sex marriage and said probate judges have a legal duty under the U.S. Constitution to issue the licenses. On Monday morning, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block the start of gay marriages in Alabama.
That did not put an end to the resistance, however. Roy Moore, the chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, issued a directive Sunday night urging the state’s 68 probate judges not to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
The conflicting orders meant mixed results for those same-sex couples seeking marriage licenses Monday.
From her office in Montgomery, Susan Watson, the executive director ACLU of Alabama, was busy on the phone, keeping a running tab of which probate judges were issuing same-sex marriage licenses and which weren’t.
“Right now, we know of 27 probate judges who are not issuing license to same-sex couples,” Watson said just before noon.
Depending on the probate judge in question, Monday was a day of celebrations or disappointment.
But in Carrollton, the county seat of Pickens County, Monday was pretty ordinary and the biggest controversy for clerks in the office of county probate judge John Earl Paluzzi involved a mild dispute with a weary woman who leaned across the counter, frowning, as she was told she didn’t have the necessary papers to get a car tag.
“Nobody’s come in for a marriage license, even regular or gay,” a clerk confided. “We usually do about 30 marriage licenses a month, but Friday we had five couples come in to get married. They were worried that if they waited until today, they wouldn’t be able to, I guess.”
A sign at the entrance to the probate judge building and another on the door of the office, informed visitors of a change in policy.
“Effective Feb. 9, 2015, the Pickens County probate office will no longer perform marriage ceremonies,” said the notice, which was signed by Paluzzi.
Just before 2 p.m., Paluzzi returned to his office after a long lunch on a slow day to explain his decision.
A small, silver-haired man in his 70s, Paluzzi sat, hands folded neatly in his lap, and softly addressed the subject.
“As of right now, we are accepting marital applications for heterosexual and gay unions,” Paluzzi said. “We will process the heterosexual applications and hold the gay applications until further clarification. As you know, there is some dispute over this at the present time.
“We don’t know, at this point, when that will be settled. We may have an answer before the day is over. But right now, this is how we are handling it.”
One thing that is no longer undecided is Paluzzi’s role in performing marriage ceremonies. Sensing, perhaps, that the defiance seen in some areas of the state is an exercise in futility, Paluzzi has been pro-active in resolving the issue in his mind.
“In the eight years I’ve been in this office, I averaged about a marriage a day,” he said. “It’s something I really enjoyed. But as of today, I won’t be performing any more marriages. Just to be safe and confirm my own beliefs, I’ve decided not to perform marital ceremonies of any kind.”
As of Monday, the subject of issuing marriage license to gay couples remained pretty much theoretical, since no gay couples tuned up at his office.
You get the distinct feeling that Paluzzi would prefer it to remain that way, although it seems only a matter of time until his office is faced with that decision.
Back in Montgomery, Watson was curious about Paluzzi’s position.
“I’m putting him down as a ‘no,’ if they aren’t processing applications from gay couples,” she said.
“In the end, there’s no difference between refusing to take those applications and taking them, but not processing them.
“That makes 28,” she said.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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