But as he’s shown before, that’s a setback he can overcome. Five months ago, he issued an order that defied the law and tried to halt the issuance of licenses to LGBT couples across the Yellowhammer State. Who knows? This time he might even win the governorship. Moore is also charged with acting while a lawsuit over the constitutionality of same-sex marriage was pending before the court.
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The 69-year-old may be found guilty, and could be removed from his office. He gave the order despite a ruling the previous summer from the U-S Supreme that effectively legalized gay marriage across the country. He ran for governor in 2006 and 2010, but didn’t make it out of the Republican primary either time. He was re-elected in 2012.
Chief Justice Roy Moore has previously accused “atheists, homosexuals and transgender individuals” of logging politically motivated complaints against him.
“I will be praying for Chief Justice Moore and his family as he faces this attack and invite all Alabamians to join me in asking God to shield them from harm”, Ainsworth added. Despite his personal misgivings, the complaint says Moore “took an oath of office to support the United States Constitution, and as a state judicial officer, is bound by the United States Supreme Court’s interpretation and application of that Constitution”.
The complaint filed Friday alleges that Moore issued an administrative order last January requiring probate judges to halt the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples, saying the judges “have a ministerial duty” not to issue the licenses. “That’s not what I said”, Moore said at the conference.
The JIC charges stated that Judge Moore “knowingly ordered the state’s probate judges to commit violations of the Canons of Judicial Ethics and abandoned his role as a neutral and detached chief administrator of the judicial system”. This precipitated a crisis when the federal district judge didn’t back down.
That’s Roy Moore talking to reporters in April about his order to Alabama’s probate judges to refuse marriage licenses to same sex couples.
In my view Moore’s actions were legally wrong.
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Like any common criminal, Roy Moore has a history of breaking the law and unilaterally ruling that his religion is the law of the land and the Constitution is null and void. After this decision, previous year a federal judge ruled same-sex marriage was legal in Alabama. “Pursuant to … the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Alabama probate judges are not subject to those orders because the probate judges are not parties or associated with any party in those cases”. The right-wing jurist will not participate in cases pending at the Alabama Supreme Court. Otherwise they would not have released this information to outside sources. When the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission receives such a complaint, similar to a grand jury, and decides whether to recommend charges to the Alabama Court of the Judiciary.
