Contributions as Probate Judge of Elmore County
STATEMENT REGARDING MARRIAGE
by
Judge John E. Enslen
Judge John E. Enslen, as Probate Judge of Elmore County, Alabama, was thrust into the heart of the same-sex marriage controversy and the surrounding litigation. In the State of Alabama, the probate judges are the officials who issue marriage licenses in their respective counties. There are 68 probate judges in Alabama and less that 1/4 of them have ever held a law degree and been actively engaged in the practice of law.
When the legal issues surrounding same-sex marriage came quickly to the forefront in Alabama in 2015, Judge Enslen was made a respondent, along with the overwhelming majority of other Alabama probate judges, in a class action filed directly with the Supreme Court of Alabama. That civil action sought to prohibit by emergency writ of mandamus the issuance of same-sex marriage licenses within the State of Alabama.
By filing a responsive pro se pleading with the Supreme Court of Alabama, Judge Enslen became the only probate judge in the State of Alabama to be realigned with the institutional petitioners seeking to uphold a specific provision in the Constitution of the State of Alabama which expressly limited marriage to one man and one woman. That constitutional provision had been adopted by 81% of Alabama voters in a 2006 election.
It was Judge Enslen’s realignment with the original petitioners that insured standing for the institutional petitioner’s position in the case. The complete name of the case is Ex parte State ex rel. Alabama Policy Institute, Alabama Citizens Action Program, and John E. Enslen, in his official capacity as Judge of Probate for Elmore County; (In re: Alan L. King, in his official capacity as Judge of Probate for Jefferson County, et al.) 200 So. 3d 495, 502-503, 552 (Ala March 3, 2015). Judge Enslen’s realignment and a 7-1 ruling in his favor by the Alabama Supreme Court resulted in the prohibition against further same-sex marriages in the State of Alabama pending a ruling by the United States Supreme Court. The intervening period lasted from March 10, 2015, until June 26, 2015, about three and a half months, when the United States Supreme Court issued its narrow 5-4 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges.
During the litigation, Judge Enslen had briefed the Supreme Court of Alabama regarding his personal views relating to the subject of marriage. In the concluding portion of this litigation in the Supreme Court of Alabama, Judge Enslen’s views on the subject of marriage were quoted in a post-Obergefell opinion issuing from the court. The following quote from Judge Enslen appears in Ex parte ex rel. King, 200 So. 3d 495, 583-584 (Ala March 4, 2016):
I, the undersigned [Judge John E. Enslen], possess the following sincere religious beliefs which I hold sacred. I seek from this Court a pronouncement of the full range of available legal protections for my First Amendment Rights relating to my following sincerely held religious beliefs:
I believe that marriage was created by the Divine Creator of all mankind to be the sanctuary for the procreative act, regardless of whether or not said act results in the birth of children. I believe that our Divine Creator, by revelations to his chosen prophets throughout the ages, has instructed and commanded mankind, who are his spiritual offspring, to abstain from procreative activities and pseudo-procreative activities of any type outside of the bounds of a natural marriage between a man and a woman. I believe that the complementary anatomy of the male and female body is a tactical revelation of that truth from our Divine Creator. I believe that authentic marriage is a natural child-creating and natural child-rearing institution. I believe that as an institution, marriage should not be, and never has been, about satisfying the emotional needs of adults, and that marriage should not be reduced to a mere symbol of social inclusion. I believe that over time the adverse ramifications and consequences of ignoring the foregoing Divine mandate will be irreversibly profound. I believe that children are this nation’s most important asset, and that our laws should foster the ideal family life where biological parents rear their children, and our laws should make exceptions only where absolutely necessary due to unavoidable circumstances. I believe that homosexuality is not an immutable physical or biological character trait disconnected from one’s moral agency or ability to choose one’s course of personal conduct and behavior. I respectfully request this court to uphold my First Amendment Rights and thereby protect me from diversified litigious attacks against my rights to believe, teach, practice, share, and live my sincere religious beliefs, both in the public square and elsewhere. Unlike the new right of sodomy-based marriage, those First Amendment Rights were foundational to the original establishment of this nation, indeed conditional to the original establishment of this nation, and have priority over other rights newly created by federal judicial fiat.
Judge John E. Enslen
Probate Judge of Elmore County, Alabama