Probate judges in at least eight Alabama counties continued to refuse to issue any marriage licenses as of Tuesday, nearly 16 months after the U.S. Supreme Court found that same-sex marriage is a constitutional right.

More than a dozen Alabama probate judges stopped issuing marriage licenses to both gay and straight couples at various points after a federal judge struck down Alabama's gay marriage ban on Jan. 23, 2015, and in the wake of the June 26, 2015, Supreme Court ruling.

On Tuesday, AL.com spoke with representatives of 14 of 15 county probate courts that gay marriage advocates identified as having indicated in recent months that they would not grant marriage licenses. Calls seeking comment from Geneva County Probate Judge Greg Hamic's office were not immediately returned.

Six of the judges said Tuesday that they are now issuing the licenses, but employees of Autauga, Choctaw, Clarke, Cleburne, Covington, Elmore, Pike and Washington counties confirmed that their probate judges are not currently granting any marriage licenses.

"We do not issue marriage licenses because our judge chose not to. It's our judge's choice," Debbie Owens, chief clerk of Washington County, said of the county's probate judge, Nick Williams, declining to elaborate.

Randall C. Marshall, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Alabama, said he believes the reason why the judges are refusing to grant marriage licenses is clear.

"There is no doubt that the counties that are not issuing licenses to anybody have taken that approach because of the same sex-marriage decision," he said Tuesday.

'Not discriminating'

Judges can legally refuse to perform any marriage ceremony, and representatives of the eight probate judges who refuse to issue licenses - as well as those of Bibb, Chambers, Clay, Coosa, Crenshaw, and Marengo counties, which are currently issuing licenses - said Tuesday they were declining to preside over any marriage ceremonies. Federal law makes clear that individuals cannot be forced to perform wedding ceremonies, an issue that mainly arises due to a presiding person's religious beliefs.

As the national gay marriage controversy swirled last year, dozens of judges, especially in the Deep South, claimed that they also have the right to decline to issue marriage licenses to any couples.

Kim Davis, county clerk in Rowan County, Ky., became a household name in August 2015, when she defied the Supreme Court and declined to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

None of the eight counties that confirmed Tuesday that their probate judges are not issuing marriage licenses said they are denying licenses only to gay couples while granting them to straight couples.

But they do maintain that they have the right to refuse to issue any marriage licenses, so long as they do so across the board.

Angi Stalnaker, a spokeswoman for Pike County Probate Judge Wes Allen, said via phone that Allen has not issued a marriage license since February 2015, and that he is acting within the law by doing so.

"Alabama law says probate judges may issue marriage licenses, but doesn't require them to, so Judge Wes Allen got Pike County out of the marriage business altogether a couple of years ago," Stalnaker said. "The Supreme Court said you can't discriminate against individuals. He's not discriminating because he's not issuing licenses to anybody in Pike County."

She added that because Alabama law "says that they 'may' issue marriage licenses, not that they 'shall' issue them," that leaves room for Allen and other judges to decline to issue any and all marriage licenses.

'We thought this was over'

But some LGBT rights advocates believe that when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of marriage equality in Obergefell v. Hodges last June, probate judges lost the right to decide not to issue marriage licenses.

Gary Wright II is a gay disabled veteran and CEO of a media and engineering firm who lives in Marshall County. As a plaintiff in the landmark Alabama gay marriage case Strawser v. Strange, Wright achieved a degree of prominence and expertise on the subject.

He is also the founder of an unofficial government watchdog group called Alabama Justice that fights for issues including marriage equality and abolishing the state's death penalty.

"We thought this was over but, sure enough, Alabama will be the last state in the nation to get through this ... Everyone thinks - especially after the Supreme Court win - that this was settled and everyone's moved on," Wright said.

"But the judges who didn't want to go along with [gay marriage] just said, 'we won't issue licenses to any couple.'"

The ACLU's Marshall said he believes there is a reasonable case to be made that the constitutional rights of any couples who want to get married in counties where probate judges are not issuing licenses are being infringed.

"I think there is an argument to be made that because the U.S. Supreme Court talked about marriage as a fundamental right, individuals who live in those counties and are burdened by the refusal of the probate judge to issue marriage licenses may in fact have a constitutional claim," he said.

Wright - who said his license certifying his marriage to his husband was issued in January by Marshall County Probate Judge Tim Mitchell only after Wright threatened to bring contempt charges against him - said he is dismayed that there are still probate judges in Alabama who refuse to issue marriage licenses.

He currently hopes to find a straight or gay couple in a county where the probate judge will still not issue marriage licenses to serve as plaintiffs in a challenge against that enduring practice. He has yet to find such a couple.

"They deserve the same rights as citizens in any other county, and I don't buy that they should have to travel or to drive. The Constitution applies to everyone," he said. "All I need is a plaintiff in any one of these counties to go ahead and get the state closed out."