U.S. District Judge Ginny Granade ruled in favor of same-sex unions on Friday by striking down Alabama’s amendment banning such marriages.

What led to this ruling was a lawsuit filed in Mobile which contended the state’s same-sex marriage ban prevented Cari Searcy from a second-parent adoption of her 9-year-old son Khaya Searcy. Cari Searcy and partner Kim McKeand were legally married in California in 2008, according to an Associated Press report.