At first today, Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore said a state supreme court order effectively kept probate judges from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples for 25 days.

Moore, however, later backtracked.

"What the order means is that within that 25-day period no (probate judge) has to issue a marriage license to a same sex couple," Moore said.

Moore said that if he implied that the order prohibited the issuing of marriage license to same-sex couples then he misspoke.

"I am not real clear what it's saying .. it's very unclear," Jefferson County Probate Judge Sherri Friday said. At this moment, they are still issuing licenses to same-sex couples as her attorneys review the order.

Part of the order that is confusing is that the court has "invited" parties to submit motions on how the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling last week legalizing gay marriage impact's the Alabama Supreme Court's ruling in the Alabama Policy Institute case.

"As it has done for approximately two centuries, Alabama law allows for 'marriage' between only one man and one woman," the order issued in March stated. "Alabama probate judges have a ministerial duty not to issue any marriage license contrary to this law. Nothing in the United States Constitution alters or overrides this duty."

That order, called a writ of mandamus, had been requested by the Alabama Policy Institute and the Alabama Citizens Action Program in February.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

AL.com reporter Kent Faulk contributed to this report.