A U.S. Federal judge has ordered an Alabama official to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples, in a move that will hopefully break a standoff.

Federal judge Callie V.S. Granade ordered Mobile County Probate Judge Don Davis to abide by her January ruling that strikes down ban on gay marriages in Alabama.

Like Us on Facebook

Alabama is the 37^th state that allows gay marriages. However, on Sunday, state chief justice Roy Moore ordered probate judges not to obey Granade's ruling, saying it violates the sanctity of marriage.

This resulted to Alabama probate judges being caught in between conflicting orders from Granade and Moore.

While Granade's decision only covers Davis, it was aimed at sending a message  to all other state's judges who still refuse to issue marriage licenses to gay couples.

Only 23 out of Alabama's 67 counties have been issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Judges in 18 counties issue licenses only to straight couples, while 26 counties do not issue marriage licenses at all.

A lawyer representing Davis had said the probate judge remains impartial and is not taking sides. Atty. Michael Druhan said, Davis will "accept any valid order from the federal court". But Druhan was also quick to add that Davis was also bound by the Supreme Court.

Gay couples like Robert Povilat and Milton Persinger were among the dozens of frustrated couples who were denied a marriage license. They spent the whole day outside a courthouse, while Davis locked down his office and windows, refusing to issue gay marriage licenses.

"We're residents of Mobile County," Povilat began. "We are residents of Mobile City, and we feel that with the laws that are in effect, that we should have the right to this in our city and in our county."

Granade struck down Alabama's ban on same-sex marriage in January. However, she put a hold on the decision which had expired on February 9^th. This was supposed to pave the way for gay marriages to begin taking effect Monday.

Moore, however, in his 11^th hour decision, told probate judges not to obey the ruling.

Moore's order had violated the supremacy clause of the constitution, which gives federal rulings supremacy over lower court rulings.

A group of lawyers had filed an ethics complaint against Moore. Moore has earlier defied a federal judge's order to take down a Ten Commandments monument from a government building in 2003.

TagsAlabama, same sex marriage, gay couples, LGBT