Gay rights advocates in Alabama sue for right to marriage licenses

BY JONATHAN KAMINSKY
Tue Feb 10, 2015 4:05pm EST

(Reuters) - A U.S. judge in Alabama said on Tuesday she will hear arguments later this week on whether to force a local judge to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, a day after officials in most of the state refused to do so in defiance of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Lawyers for same-sex couples unable to obtain marriage licenses in Mobile County filed separate legal challenges against the county's probate court judge, Don Davis, late on Monday.

Mobile County, home to Mobile, the state's third-largest city, was the most populous of the 42 of Alabama's 67 counties that continued to refuse to provide marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples on Tuesday, gay rights advocates said, down from 52 counties a day earlier.

U.S. District Court Judge Callie Granade, a President George W. Bush appointee who struck down the state's ban on gay marriage as unconstitutional in a ruling that took effect on Monday, scheduled a hearing for Thursday.

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