ALABAMA: Another Win For Marriage

Read the ruling.

UPDATE: The plaintiffs didn't even have a lawyer. Has that ever happened before?

U.S. District Judge Callie V.S. "Ginny" Granade, who on Friday declared the state's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, ruled on Monday in favor of James Strawser and John Humphrey in a separate case. The Alabama Attorney General's Office immediately vowed to appeal. Humphrey, 38, said he did not have the highest level of confidence when he and Strawser filed the federal lawsuit in September. Alabama is a conservative state, he noted, and the couple did not even have a lawyer. "I am just ecstatically pleased. We didn't realize it would be so soon and did not even think she would consider it," Humphrey said. "This is the Bible Belt for Christ sake." As she did in a case involving Cari Searcy and Kim McKeand, Granade delayed the ruling in this case from taking effect until Feb. 9 to give the state a chance to try to persuade the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to block it until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on a same-sex marriage case later this year.