In most states, once a federal court has declared laws against same-sex marriage unconstitutional, state officials go along. This is true even in Wisconsin, where governor Scott Walker acquiesced in a federal court ruling. But in Alabama things are different. After a federal district court ruling holding Alabama’s same sex marriage ban unconstitutional, and the refusal of the 11th circuit to grant a stay, some probate judges are still resisting giving same sex marriage licenses. Some had been encouraged to resist by the state’s Supreme Court Justice Ray Moore.

Well now comes a bigger gun.  A 7 Justice 134 page majority opinion holding it illegal, at least temporarily, for probate judges to issue same-sex marriage licenses in the state, except perhaps to the limited extent they are ordered to do so by federal courts. Even then, it may take a direct order from the U.S. Supreme Court to put an end to all of this.

We know how this ends—with same sex marriages in Alabama. But it will be a struggle to the end.

It is kind of amazing this is coming almost 50 years to the day of the Selma march. I was just in Alabama this past weekend for an incredible conference on the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. I thought it remarkable how far the state has come. But I now see there is much further for the state to go when it comes to the question of civil rights.