The U.S. Supreme Court is not expected to rule through the weekend on a request by Alabama lawyers to block gay marriage, the court's deputy clerk told attorneys late Friday afternoon.

That would clear the way for U.S. District Judge Callie V.S. "Ginny" Granade's ruling striking down the state's same-sex marriage ban to take effect Monday. That is the day she set after ruling on Jan. 23 that the Marriage Protection Act and the Sanctity of Marriage Amendment violate the U.S. Constitution's due process and Equal Protection clauses.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday refused to extend the "stay" Granade issued beyond Feb. 9. The U.S. Supreme Court was Alabama's last chance to stop gay marriages.

David Kennedy, an attorney for plaintiffs Kim McKeand and Cari Searcy in Mobile, said he expects same-sex marriage licenses to be issued first thing Monday morning. He said it is somewhat unusual that the high court would not rule one way or the other since the justices of issued rulings on request to delay gay marriages from beginning in other states.

"I haven't seen one that moved this quickly, either," he said, noting that the state's petition to the court is less than a week old. "It seems like its moved pretty quickly."

There is still a chance that the high court will uphold an appellate decision from Cincinnati ruling that gay marriage bans are constitutional. But at least until that ruling, which is expected by this summer, same-sex marriage is legal in Alabama.

Alabama will be the 37th state, plus the District of Columbia, to issue same-sex marriage licenses.

The Supreme Court's decision to let Granade's order take effect means that Searcy and McKeand, the gay couple whose challenge prompted the ruling, can re-apply for a second-parent adoption by Searcy of the 9-year-old boy she and McKeand have raised since birth.

It means that west Mobile residents James Strawser and John Humphrey can re-apply for the marriage license they were denied less than a year ago because of Alabama's now-invalid law.

It means that Paul Hard can seek to change the death certificate of the man he legally married in Massachusetts - who died in a traffic accident - and pursue death benefits from a lawsuit over that fatal wreck.

It means that Birmingham residents April and Ginger Aaron-Brush can have their Massachusetts marriage recognized in their home state and allow Ginger to co-adopt a girl legally adopted by April.

And it means that hundreds, perhaps thousands of same-sex couples across Alabama now can marry in a state many of them never thought would accept it.

The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals already has said it will not decide pending appeals in Florida and Alabama until the Supreme Court rules on a same-sex marriage case from Cincinnati. Legal observers expect a ruling by the summer.

The Cincinnati case is the only one in which an appeals court has sided with the right of states to exclude same-sex couples from the institution of marriage. Given that the high court struck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act in 2013 and has allowed gam marriages to take place in states where judges have struck down bans, many legal analysts predict the justices will make gay marriage the law of the land.