MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore has been suspended without pay for his defiance of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage. The Alabama Court of the Judiciary found that Moore’s order instructing probate judges to violate the SCOTUS holding violated judicial ethics and suspended him from the bench for the remainder of his term.
Moore was found guilty of all six charges levied against him. The suspension is effective until the end of his term in 2019 and Gov. Robert Bentley will have to name a replacement.
The Court of the Judiciary noted that the case came down to the violations of federal law, not Moore’s stance on same-sex marriage.
“This court emphasizes that this case is concerned only with alleged violations of the Canons of Jucial Ethics,” wrote the COJ. “This case is not about whether same-sex marriage should be permitted: indeed, we recognize that a majority of voters in Alabama adopted a constitutional amendment in 2006 banning same-sex marriage, as did a majority of states over the last 15 years.”
Moore and his attorneys argued in trial that his order to probate judges was not telling probate judges how to rule, but rather simply that they must rule. The COJ soundly rejected Moore’s explanation.
“We likewise do not accept Chief Justice Moore’s repeated argument that the disclaimer in paragraph 10 of the January 6, 2016, order – in which Chief Justice Moore asserted he was ‘not at liberty to provide any guidance … of the effect of Obergefell on the existing orders of the Alabama Supreme Court’ – negated the reality that Chief Justice More was in fact ‘ordering and directing’ the probate judges to comply with the API orders regardless of Obergefell or the injunction in Strawser (federal case in Alabama),” the COJ wrote.
After receiving the verdict, Moore declared that the decision “clearly reflects the corrupt nature of our political and legal system at the highest level.”
“This was a politically motivated effort by radical homosexual and transgender groups to remove me as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court because of outspoken opposition to their immoral agenda,” Moore said in a statement. “This opinion violates not only the legal standards of evidence but also the rule of law which states that no judge can be removed from office except by unanimous vote.”
Moore was previously removed from the bench in 2003 when he refused to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from the Alabama Judicial Building. He was re-elected Chief Justice in 2013.
With Moore now suspended until 2019, two of the three heads of Alabama’s branches of government have been effectively ousted within the past four months. In June, former Alabama Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard was convicted on twelve charges surrounding schemes designed to leverage the power of his office to enrich himself.
