Alabama Supreme Court orders halt to same-sex marriages Eli Borges , of Riverside, tears up as Don Wright, his partner of seven years, signs in to get their marriage license at the the Jefferson County Courthouse, Monday February 9, 2015. Alabama became the 37th state to legalize same-sex marriages, clearing the way for marriage equality. (Tamika Moore/tmoore@al.com) By Kyle Whitmire | kwhitmire@al.com Weeks after a United States District Court judge in Mobile ordered a probate judge there to issue same-sex marriage licenses, the Alabama Supreme Court has ordered a halt to same-sex marriages in the state. "As it has done for approximately two centuries, Alabama law allows for 'marriage' between only one man and one woman," the order said. "Alabama probate judges have a ministerial duty not to issue any marriage license contrary to this law. Nothing in the United States Constitution alters or overrides this duty." While same-sex marriage advocates chanted "love wins" outside Alabama courthouses last month, the Alabama Supreme Court said love has little to do with legal marriage in the state. "This notion has broad public appeal and is, perhaps, the mantra most repeated in public discussions of this matter," the court wrote. "But although love may be an important factor in a lasting marriage, civil marriage has no public interest in whether the people seeking a marriage license love one another." The order, called a writ of mandamus, had been requested by the Alabama Policy Institute and the Alabama Citizens Action Program last month. In a statement after the ruling, lawyers from Liberty Counsel, which represented the plaintiffs, applauded the decision and blasted the federal judge who ruled in favor of same-sex marriages in Mobile. "The ruling represents a significant shift of momentum in the same-sex marriage agenda, and is a direct challenge to the orders of U.S. District Court Judge Callie Granade, who in January purported to overturn Alabama's marriage laws," the firm said in a statement released Tuesday night. "The ruling of the Alabama Supreme Court offers the most forceful and clearly articulated rebuttal to date of the imaginative arguments for same-sex 'marriage' employed by federal courts." Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore has been a vocal opponent of same-sex marriage in the media in the last month. However, he is not listed among the concurring or dissenting judges and appears to have recused himself from the case. The court seemed to chide Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange for not taking a more active role in enforcing state law. "In the wake of the federal district court's orders, Attorney General Strange has refrained from fulfilling what would otherwise have been his customary role of providing advice and guidance to public officials, including probate judges, as to whether or how their duties under the law may have been altered by the federal district court's decision," the court wrote. The order gives probate judges five days to submit responses if they want to show cause why they should be able to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The order also gives Mobile County Probate Judge Don Davis until Thursday to argue why he should not be bound by the order. Davis has asked the court to dismiss him from the lawsuit because he had been ordered by the federal district court to issue licenses to same-sex couples. Only Justice Greg Shaw dissented from the order, but he made clear that he did so because he thought the case had been filed incorrectly and the court did not yet have jurisdiction to hear it. In his dissent, Shaw argued that the federal court should have issued a stay against same-sex marriages until the U.S. Supreme Court had settled the matter. Click here for the rest of the article: http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2015/03/alabama_supreme_court_orders_h.html