From Alabama:
Roy Moore and his big stones
Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore standing in the courthouse door (editorial opinion from al.com):
Almost 52 years ago Gov. George Wallace made his infamous stand in the schoolhouse door at the University of Alabama to block two black students from registering for classes.
It was really all for show. Wallace knew he had no authority to stop the students. The federal courts had ruled that the time had come to integrate UA […]
… last night Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore ordered all probate judges not to follow the federal order and instead continue to enforce the state’s ban against same sex marriage. Moore threatened that any probate judge carrying out the federal court order could be impeached …
He is trying to stand in the courthouse door as surely as Wallace stood in the schoolhouse door. Shame on him.[…]
What happens next? I don’t know. Moore is standing in the courthouse door. He represents the old days, the days of fear and misunderstanding and the denial of equal rights.
Bentley will gather with his lawyers today to mull his options.
I hope the governor will follow his instincts and remember to be the governor of all the people, something Wallace forgot.
From the Supreme Court of the United States:
[The ] Supreme Court denied Alabama’s request to put same-sex marriages on hold pending the appeal of two cases.
Justice Thomas and Justice Scalia dissented, writing, “Today’s decision represents yet another example of this Court’s increasingly cavalier attitude toward the States. Over the past few months, the Court has repeatedly denied stays of lower court judgments enjoining the enforcement of state laws on questionable constitutional grounds.
Justice Clarence Thomas, a black American who benefited from the civil rights battles of the 1960s, giving cover to this century’s states righters.
More below the fold …
