Gay marriage is the law of the land -- including Alabama.

After months of unprecedented resistance to a federal court ruling striking down Alabama's ban on same-sex marriage, the U.S. Supreme Court today settled the issue once and for all in a 5-4 vote.

The justices reversed the Cincinnati-based Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which had held that states have a right to define marriage as the exclusive province of one man and one woman.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, who has been the court's swing vote in gay rights cases, wrote the majority opinion for himself and the four liberal justices.

"The Constitution promises liberty to all within its reach, a liberty that includes certain specific rights that allow persons, within a lawful realm, to define and express their identity," Kennedy wrote. "The petitioners in these cases seek to find that liberty by marrying someone of the same sex and having their marriages deemed lawful on the same terms and conditions as marriages between persons of the opposite sex."

Each of the court's four conservative justices -- John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas -- wrote a separate dissent.

Scalia, who joined Roberts' main dissent, wrote separately to warn of the threat to American democracy. He wrote that marriage law was of no special importance to him.

"It is of overwhelming importance, however, who it is that rules me," he wrote. "Today's decree says that my Ruler, and the Ruler of 320 million Americans coast-to-coast, is a majority of the nine lawyers on the Supreme Court."

The Sixth Circuit was alone among the nation's appellate courts; others that had ruled had lined up in favor of same-sex marriage. Most federal district judges who weighed in on the issue also reached the same conclusion.

The Supreme Court's decision means that state bans on same-sex marriage across the country now are unenforceable.

Presumably, gay couples will be able to start getting married within days. In Alabama, it could happen even faster. That is because Mobile-based U.S. District Judge Callie V.S. "Ginny" Granade, whose Jan. 23 ruling set off a protracted tug-of-war with state officials, issued a ruling May 21 specifically applying the ruling to all 68 probate judges.

She had put the order on hold pending the outcome of the Supreme Court case. That means Granade's order to all probate judges to treat gay couples the same as heterosexual couples takes effect immediately.

The high court's action grants full marriage benefits to any same-sex couple who legally married in another state -- or who married in Alabama during a brief window during which Granade's original order was effect before the state Supreme Court shut it down -- now can enjoy all of the benefits of marriage.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling also means that any gay couple who wishes to get married can now do so.

Cari Searcy and Kim McKeand, the Mobile couple whose lawsuit led to Granade's ruling in January, now presumably face no more obstacles in completing a second-parent adoption giving Searcy full parental rights over the 9-year-old boy they have raised together since birth.

Searcy has had temporary parental rights since February. But Searcy has been unable to finalize the adoption because Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore has not appointed a replacement judge to take the place of Mobile County Probate Judge Don Davis, who recused himself in March.

Searcy, McKeand and other supporters had planned to rally outside of Mobile County Probate Court after the high court's decision.

Updated at 9:33 a.m. to include details of the opnions.