Professor Bernadette Meyler weighs in on the implications of recent rulings in Alabama regarding same-sex marriage for The San Francisco Chronicle.

Turning the tables on a federal judge’s ruling, the Alabama Supreme Court has closed the doors to gay and lesbian couples in the state who want to be married.

In its decision Tuesday upholding Alabama’s ban on same-sex marriage, and ordering all judges in the state to enforce it, the court contradicted not only a federal court decision in January declaring the law unconstitutional, but also widespread predictions among legal scholars that the U.S. Supreme Court will reach a similar conclusion in a nationwide ruling in June.

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Wasserman, Tribe and others said the Alabama ruling would probably become only a footnote in legal history after the high court’s nationwide ruling. But Bernadette Meyler, a constitutional law professor at Stanford, said the state court was setting a potentially troublesome precedent by reaching out to decide a constitutional issue and contradict a federal judge’s ruling expanding individual rights.

“It could lead to a lot of conflict, a lot of uncertainty about the law, and problems for people not being able to vindicate their constitutional rights,” she said.