MONTGOMERY, AL - On Wednesday, Washington County Probate Judge Nick Williams filed an Emergency Petition to the Supreme Court of Alabama in light of the recent jailing of Kentucky Clerk, Kim Davis. Judge Williams asked the Court for an order declaring the efficacy of the Court’s previous order upholding and enforcing the Alabama Constitution and Alabama’s marriage laws, notwithstanding the decision of the Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges. Judge Williams requested that the ruling include free exercise rights for himself and others in Alabama as protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and Amendment 622 of the Alabama Constitution.
On March 3, 2015, the Alabama Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling that championed the truth about marriage, the rule of law, the Constitution of the United States, and the democratic voice of the people. On June 26th, 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States, dealt an arrogant blow to those very things in a 5-4 opinion that purported to redefine marriage to include two individuals of the same-sex. On July 6th, Liberty Counsel, on behalf of API and ALCAP, filed a motion to the Alabama Supreme Court asking them to uphold their ruling from March and offered precedent of state courts ignoring unconstitutional SCOTUS opinions. The case is still pending in the Alabama Supreme Court.
Judge Williams provided that, “Clerk Davis would not have been placed in that position had a bare majority of five justices on the United States Supreme Court not chosen to substitute their own will as superior to the written United States Constitution, the will of the People as expressed in more than 36 state constitutions, and the common wisdom of our forbears in more than 220 years of American history, and millennia of our Anglo-Western heritage. ‘The Judge should never be the legislator: because then the will of the Judge would be the Law: and this tends to a State of Slavery.’”
Judge Williams noted that Kim Davis said “no” based, not only upon her religious beliefs but, upon her state’s marriage laws, and upon her oath to defend the laws of her state and the United States Constitution. There are probate judges and hundreds of others in Alabama who take seriously that same oath and who hold seriously that same belief about the immutable nature of marriage between one man and one woman. They should be allowed to do their job and follow the written law of the land (not one unconstitutional opinion of the SCOTUS) without fear of jail or financial ruin.
Solely redefining marriage to include two people of the same-sex is not what we are seeing play out in post-Obergefell America. Instead, we are seeing the predicted Pandora’s Box of immorality and confusion opening. We are seeing Christians, and others who hold to the truth about marriage and the law of the land, intimidated and forced to submit to a lie that says marriage is not between one man and one woman and that an unconstitutional opinion from SCOTUS is “the law of the land.” Judge Williams states that “what proponents of same-sex so-called “marriage” would have this Court do (along with millions of Americans - including Clerk Davis in Kentucky, and the probate judges of Alabama) is give their assent to what is at its essence, a lie.”
In Wednesday’s petition, Judge Williams quoted Chief Justice Robert’s prophetic statement about the attack that would result from Obergefell, on the First Amendment right, not only to believe, but to freely exercise, religion: “The majority graciously suggests that religious believers may continue to “advocate” and “teach” their views of marriage. Ante, at 2607. The First Amendment guarantees, however, the freedom to “exercise” religion. Ominously, that is not a word the majority uses.” A few months after Obergefell, we’ve seen this prediction come true. And, this is only the beginning unless immediately stopped. In the words of Thomas Jefferson, “...let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.”
After briefly explaining how the vast consequences of Obergefell extend beyond state officials, Judge Williams speaks for thousands more (whether they know it or not, or whether they like it or not) and urges the Court to follow the line of duty and act for the preservation of marriage and the rule of law in Alabama. He quoted Chief Justice Collier, “As a man, cherishing, I trust, an elevated patriotism, I could wish to see the different departments of government kept within their legitimate spheres of action,—as a magistrate, I could know no discretion, but to follow the line of duty.”
Read the full text of Judge William’s Emergency Petition here.
Reprinted with permission from Sanctity of Marriage Alabama.
