Suspended Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore listens to oral arguments during his hearing before the Court of the Judiciary at the state judicial building in Montgomery, Ala., on Monday, Aug. 8, 2016.
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While the charges against Moore were brought by the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission, he accused the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) of being the true source of the accusations. Moore wrote that a March order from the state Supreme Court to refuse marriage licenses to gay couples remained in full force and effect. The Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission also argued for its motion for the court to remove Moore from the bench now for issuing that order, despite federal and U.S. Supreme Court opinions and orders that says gay marriage is legal nationwide.
Both supporters and opponents of suspended Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore are rallying outside the state judicial building before a hearing that could determine whether he’s ousted for misconduct in office.
“This case is not about whether or not the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell was a wise decision”, Carroll said. It was the second time Moore sat in the courtroom as a defendant before the Alabama Court of the Judiciary. And he says Moore has done nothing to warrant a misconduct conviction.
Carroll said despite Moore’s recusal, he began writing memos to his fellow justices on the case. Carroll said Moore was on a mission to fight same-sex weddings from taking place in the state.
There’s an indication of public support for Alabama’s Chief Justice as his case goes to trial today. Moore told the probate judges a ban on issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples was still in effect until the Alabama Supreme Court issued a ruling. The facts of the case are not in dispute: Six months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that everyone has a fundamental right to marry, Roy Moore sent an order to 68 probate judges saying the Alabama Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage ban remained in effect. The Alabama Court of the Judiciary, the state body that disciplines judges, will decide if the 69-year-old outspoken Republican jurist stands violated judicial ethics with a January order to probate judges regarding the status of same-sex marriage litigation in Alabama.
She said she wants people to know that, “Chief Justice Roy Moore has made disparaging comments about multiple types of communities”, the LGBTQ community in particular.
Moore was re-elected chief justice in 2012.
Carroll, however, said that Moore was not merely advising probate judges.
Before and during the hearing, Moore’s supporters sang Christian music on the front steps of the Alabama Judicial Building.
Moore’s legal representative, Mathew Staver, the chairman of Liberty Counsel, contends the charges are politically motivated. “Judge Roy Moore is part of my family as a believer”, Chasom said.
“While the JIC contends that my motivation to issue the administrative order was to defy the federal courts, the following excerpts from my memoranda to the court … indicate that I strongly encouraged my colleagues to dispel the existing concern and uncertainty by promptly addressing the question”, Moore previously told the court. “There is nothing in that administrative order that says that”.
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SPLC president Richard Cohen rejected the allegation.
