MONTGOMERY, Ala. - A Southern heritage group is defending Alabama's ban on same-sex marriage.

The Alabama-based League of the South is planning a protest for this morning in Montgomery outside the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is trying to overturn the ban.

A statement from the president of the league, Michael Hill, says the liberal legal organization supports overturning what he calls "the building block of our civilization."

The Southern Poverty Law Center is representing a gay man who filed suit seeking to overturn Alabama's ban on same-sex marriage.

The man, Paul Hard, wed David Fancher legally in Massachusetts, but Alabama wouldn't recognize the union. Fancher was later killed in an automobile accident.

The League of the South supports the idea of Southern states once again seceding from the United States.