Alabama Senate approves bill aimed at eliminating marriage licenses

The Alabama Senate has passed a legislation that is aimed at eliminating the requirements for probate judges to sign marriage licenses.

The measure, which was passed by a vote of 22–6 earlier this month, would amend Alabama law to remove the requirements for couples to obtain marriage licenses or have marriage ceremonies, World Magazine reported.

Republican state Sen. Greg Albritton, the bill's sponsor, said that it would protect the religious liberty of probate judges and clergy who have moral objections to signing same-sex marriage licenses.

"It keeps the state from making the decision of who can and cannot get married. It prevents the state from that gatekeeper position," he said.

Under Albritton's proposal, couples would file signed affidavits with a probate judge, who would be required to record the marriage, but not condone or authorize it. The notarized affidavit includes an affirmation that the spouses meet the legal requirements for marriage.

Some conservatives were concerned that the legislation could threaten the sanctity of marriage. Two Republican state senators argued that the state should have a role in authorizing marriage and that eliminating the requirement for marriage licenses and ceremonies would reduce it to a contract between two parties.

The bill was first proposed in 2015 after the Alabama Supreme Court and a federal court clashed over the legality of same-sex marriage in the state before the U.S. Supreme Court legalized it across the country. Some probate judges in Alabama have objected to issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Albritton said that Obergefell v. Hodges, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that legalized gay marriage, was a "catalyst," but he said he wanted to bring uniformity to the issue.

"Right now you have in this state some who are doing it, and some who aren't. We need to get that unified," he said.

The senator's bills have always been cleared in the Senate but failed in the House. He expects the legislation to be approved by the House Judiciary Committee, and he hopes that it would get a vote before the whole House this session.

Alabama would be the first state to implement such a law if it passes, but Albritton maintained that his proposal is not a new idea.

"I am only going back to the way we were doing things about 100 years ago," he said, noting that marriages in Alabama were conducted and recorded in the probate office, just as his bill would require, before the state started issuing marriage licenses in the early 20th century.