AL Chief Justice Roy Moore to Face Judicial Panel Today on Ethics Charges Over Gay Marriage Order

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AL Chief Justice Roy Moore to Face Judicial Panel Today on Ethics Charges Over Gay Marriage Order

Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore will face a trial-like proceeding today on judicial ethics charges stemming from his defiance of the Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage. Moore could be removed from the bench.

Moore, who has been defying the federal government since the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, was suspended in May and charged with violating ethical rules for trying to stop probate judges from issuing marriage licenses in the state.

In January, Moore issued an order prohibiting 68 probate judges from issuing marriage licenses to gay couples telling them they had a “ministerial duty” to do so.

In his order, Moore actually cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s Obergefell ruling. Moore claimed that the high court’s ruling only applied to Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee, the states directly involved in Obergefell.

In March, the Alabama Supreme Court dismissed a series of petitions asking it to declare that the state’s ban on gay marriage is still in effect.

That decision meant anti-gay foes like the Alabama Policy Institute were out of legal options to try and fight the SCOTUS ruling on gay marriage in Obergefell. However, that fact didn’t stop Chief Justice Roy Moore from writing a scathing rebuke of Obergefell and insisting that the state’s ban on gay marriage was still in effect.

The AP reports on today’s proceedings:

The nine-member Court of the Judiciary will weigh the intent with the memo: Was it a defiant effort to try to block gay marriage or, as Moore contends, a status report in response to probate judges’ questions?

Moore’s attorney Mat Staver said the chief justice told the judges that he was not at “liberty” to offer them advice on what to do. Staver said probate judges were asking questions because the Alabama Supreme Court had not lifted the order after indicating they would make a decision.

John Carroll, a lawyer for the Judicial Inquiry Commission — the group that brought the charges against Moore — told the court last month that Moore’s purpose was clear and now is trying to “pretend away” the charges.

Shortly after the Obergefell ruling, Moore predicted all-out war over it.

Moore said that same-sex marriage would lead to the “persecution” of Christians who would be forced to “accept evil” and “condone sodomy.” He also said it would lead to a massive and possibly violent backlash and claimed that the founding fathers would be “incensed” at the SCOTUS decision, calling the Court a tyrannical force trampling on freedom.

Moore said he saw his battle as a holy one:

“God gives rights and the government’s role is to secure those rights. When governments [sic] dismisses god out of the equation and pretends to get rights, we suffer accordingly.

“I think that’s where we were in 1776 and if government is not securing the rights god gave us….[same-sex marriage] is not really securing it, is it?”

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