Baldwin County Probate Judge Tim Russell announced he will stop performing wedding ceremonies of any kind at his office, a decision that came the same day Alabama became the 37th state where same-sex couples could legally marry.
Russell, who has served as Baldwin County’s probate judge for five years, said the choice was driven largely by a growing workload in the probate office, though he acknowledged during a news conference that he is also morally opposed to same-sex marriage. He said he had committed to performing one more ceremony, a wedding for a former county employee, before stepping away from officiating weddings altogether.
Alabama law requires probate courts to issue marriage licenses, but it leaves individual judges and court officials discretion over whether they personally perform ceremonies. Russell joins probate judges in a handful of other Alabama counties who have opted to stop conducting weddings rather than perform ceremonies for same-sex couples, a contrast to officials such as Montgomery County’s probate judge, who said at the time he would marry any couple who applied.
Russell’s announcement came as roughly 50 demonstrators gathered outside the Baldwin County Probate Office on the courthouse square in Bay Minette to show support for Alabama’s 2006 constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman, which voters had approved by a wide margin before it was struck down as unconstitutional by a federal judge. Demonstrators held signs referencing the amendment’s original approval margin, and at least one longtime local Sunday school teacher spoke in support of the protest.
Russell said his office was awaiting formal legal guidance on how to process marriage license applications from same-sex couples, and that as of Monday morning no such applications had been submitted in Baldwin County. He said the office had added extra staff and prepared updated forms in anticipation of a possible increase in applications, while noting he did not expect a large volume locally.
Russell said his office would provide any same-sex couples applying for a license with a copy of an order from Alabama’s chief justice instructing probate judges not to issue such licenses, but added that as a constitutional officer, he ultimately had to follow the directives of the federal court.