Opponents of the Supreme Court's decision striking down gay marriage bans in all 50 states are calling on the Alabama Supreme Court to order probate judges in the state to stop issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples.

On March 3, the state's highest court handed down a ruling contradicting a federal judge's decision striking down Alabama's ban. Opponents have asked the court to uphold their ruling, this time in defiance of the Supreme Court.

In a brief submitted to the court, Liberty Counsel, Alabama Policy Institute and Alabama Citizens Action Program said that the high court's decision “assaults the rule of law, democracy, and natural law.”

“There is existing precedent for a state's highest court to reject an unlawful mandate from the U.S. Supreme Court – especially one that defies 'the laws of Nature and Nature's God,'” said Eagle Forum of Alabama President Eunie Smith.

On Monday, the Campaign for Southern Equality announced that “53 of Alabama's 67 counties are issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, 13 have closed their marriage license offices to all couples, and Coosa county is neither issuing marriage licenses to couples or is closed.”

John Eastman, chairman of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), also called on the Alabama Supreme Court to uphold the state's ban on gay marriage, comparing the Supreme Court's marriage decision to “the similarly illegitimate decision by the Supreme Court in Dred Scott.”

“The oaths that elected officials take is to 'the Constitution,' not to 'the Supreme Court,'” Eastman said, “and it is high time that 'that eminent tribunal' be reminded that the very essence of its authority comes from the Constitution. As John Marshall stated in the famous decision of Marbury v. Madison, the power of judicial review does not imply a superiority of the courts to the elected branches of government, but a superiority of the Constitution to both.”

Writing at SCOTUSblog, Lyle Denniston said that the case has the potential to “set up a new federal-state collision that potentially could go to the Supreme Court. Lower federal courts could take direct action against state trial court judges, but only the Supreme court could review a decision by the Alabama Supreme Court on a federal constitutional issue.”