The chief justice of Alabama ruled Wednesday that the state's ban on same-sex marriages is legal and told probate judges there they had a "ministerial duty" to stop issuing licenses to gay couples, AFP reports.
The ruling, in an administrative order from Alabama chief justice Roy Moore, came seven months after the US Supreme Court, in a historic 5-4 decision, held that states cannot prevent gay couples from marrying and that those that had refused to do so must now recognize such marriages.