OFFICE OF

PROBATE JUDGE OF WASHINGTON COUNTY

NICK WILLIAMS

p.o. BOX 549, CHATOM, AL 36518

OFFICE: (251) 847-2201
FAX: (251) 847-6450

BARBARA ODOM

JUDGE

CHIEF CLERK

February 6,2015

Dear Chief Justice Moore and Justices of the Supreme Court of Alabama:
Attached please find a Declaration in Support of Marriage, to which I have affixed
my signature in my capacity as Probate Judge of Washington County. Until I receive
further direction from this honorable court, I will continue to perform marriages and issue
marriage licenses in conformity with the Constitution and laws of the State of Alabama.

Respectfully,

~dk
Nick Williams

Alabama Probate Judge

Declaration in Support of Marriage
As independent members of the Alabama judiciary, elected by the people of their
respective counties, probate judges have sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution of
Alabama and the United States Constitution. The United States Constitution is silent on
the issue of marriage, except for the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, which explicitly
reserve undelegated powers to the People and to the States. Marriage is an institution
which pre-dates civil government, but which has been recognized and regulated by the
States since the founding of America, and the Common Law prior to the Founding.
Marriage has always consisted of one man and one woman in the American legal
system, and in the legal system of Alabama.
The Constitution of Alabama permits probate judges only to issue marriage
licenses or solemnize marriages which are consistent with Alabama's recognition of the
institution of marriage. Both the United States Supreme Court, and the Alabama
Supreme Court, have confirmed that the state judiciary and its officers are bound only
by the decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court, and not by the lower federal courts. For
that matter, federal court orders purporting to strike down natural marriage are contrary
to Reason, Natural Law, and the Constitutions of the United States and the State of
Alabama.
In Searcy v. Strange, Judge Granade a) had no defendant Alabama probate
judge before her when she issued her "Order Clarifying Judgmenf' to Attorney General
Strange, and b) has limited that "Order" to the parties before her. The "Order Clarifying
Judgmenf' itself confirms that her injunction and other orders are strictly limited to the
parties before her. To the extent Judge Granade opined in that same order, what, in her
opinion, the U.S. Constitution requires non-parties to do or not do, that is simply her
personal opinion which carries no force of law. "The Supremacy Clause demands that
state law yield to federal law, but neither federal supremacy nor any other principle of
federal law requires that a state court's interpretation of federal law give way to a [lower]
federal court's interpretation." Lockhart v. Fretwell, 506 U.S. 364, 376 (1993) (Thomas,
J. concurring).
Therefore, the undersigned probate judge will continue to abide by his oath of
office as supported by his constituents and guided by the Alabama Supreme Court, and
will only issue marriage licenses and solemnize ceremonies consistent with Alabama
law and the U.S. Constitution; namely, between one man and one woman only, so help
me God.
Sincerely,

~vdd~

Nick Williams,
Probate Judge, Washington County