The Judicial Inquiry Commission (JIC) is charging Moore of ethics violations, claiming he ordered state probate judges to refuse to sign same-sex marriage licenses, in violation of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling previous year legalizing same-sex marriage in all 50 states. On Monday, Moore asked the Alabama Court of the Judiciary to throw the charges against him out, but in a unanimous decision, the court ruled the case against the longtime – and often controversial jurist – must proceed.
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Nearly immediately after Moore’s attempt to bar same-sex marriage in Alabama, the Southern Poverty Law Center, a Birmingham, Alabama-based civil rights group, brought ethics complaints against him. A trial on September 28, 2016 will determine if Moore will be reinstated in his judicial role.
Staver, in defending Moore, repeatedly emphasized a section of the January order where Moore told the probate judges that he was not at “liberty to provide any guidance to Alabama probate judges on the effect of (the U.S. Supreme Court ruling) on the existing orders of the Alabama Supreme Court”.
As a result of Moore’s defiance of the Supreme Court ruling, he was removed as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court.
Moore was previously removed from the bench in 2003 after defying a court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state court building.
Staver told Moore supporters outside the judicial building holding “Judge Moore was Right” signs the charges are politically motivated, also questioning why this justice was being so harshly punished by the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission when a probate judge was just suspended for six months for sexting with a litigant by the same commission. AL.com reports that John Carroll, a former federal magistrate representing the Judicial Inquiry Commission, told the court: “We are here to talk about Chief Justice Roy Moore and his repeated refusal to follow the rule of law”.
Moore’s reasoning directly defied the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. Yet even he, as dimwitted a lawyer as he is, knows that the Supreme Court of the US supersedes any action by a state court. Moore’s order was merely a legal “truism” that the order had not been lifted by the state court, he argued.
“He has absolutely told 68 probate judges to violate a federal court order”, he said after the hearing.
In 2014, Joiner, who serves on the Alabama Criminal Court of Appeals, likewise joined his colleagues in striking down a state law that criminalized those who engage in “deviate sexual intercourse with another person”, and “c$3 onsent is no defense to a prosecution”.
“He should be removed from office because he simply can not abide by federal law”, Hard said, amid heckling from some Moore supporters.
“They said I tried to influence them”.
Ambrosia Starling, who Moore singled out for criticism after his suspension, said Monday there was “no greater sin” than “putting bigotry in God’s mouth”.
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Linda Chasom drove three hours from Georgia to attend the rally in support of Moore.
