WASHINGTON, D.C. >> The U.S. Supreme Court says it won’t stop same-sex marriages from beginning in Alabama on Monday.

The court on Monday morning denied the Alabama attorney general’s request to extend a hold on a judge’s ruling overturning the state’s ban on gay marriage. Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange had asked the Supreme Court to keep the decision on hold because justices are expected to issue a nationwide ruling on gay marriage later this year.

U.S. District Judge Callie Granade in January ruled that the Alabama ban was unconstitutional. She put a hold on her order until Monday to give the state time to appeal. Gay couples are lining up at courthouses seeking marriage licenses.

On Sunday night, Chief Justice Roy Moore sent an order to state probate judges ordering them to refuse to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. But the chief clerk for Montgomery County Probate Judge Steven Reed said he plans to issue them.

Alabama begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. >> Alabama began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples Monday, becoming the 37th state where gays can legally wed.

Probate judge Alan King issued a license to two women shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court denied the Alabama attorney general’s request to extend a hold on a federal judge’s ruling overturning the state’s ban on gay marriage.

And King issued the license Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore’s 11th-hour attempt to keep the weddings on hold, with an order send to all probate judges Sunday night directing them to refuse to issue the licenses.

King says he was abiding by the federal court order from January that determined Alabama’s statutory and constitutional bans on gay marriage were unconstitutional.

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