WASHINGTON — In an interview with Buzzfeed News on Tuesday, President Barack Obama said Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore’s defiance of a federal court ruling on same sex marriage is at least somewhat reminiscent of George Wallace’s infamous “stand in the schoolhouse door.”
“I won’t say it’s a perfect analogy, but there’s a core principle here that’s at stake, which is we have a supremacy clause in our Constitution,” Obama said. “When federal law is in conflict with state law, federal law wins out.”
Buzzfeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith followed up by asking if Mr. Obama had anything he’d like to say directly to Mr. Moore.
“My recollection is that Judge Moore had a similar problem with a federal court ruling that you couldn’t put a huge Ten Commandments statue in the middle of your courthouse and, ultimately, federal law was obeyed, and I think that the same thing will end up happening here,” Obama said. “I think that the courts at the federal level will have something to say to him.”
Moore maintains that that the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama has “no binding authority” over Alabama’s state courts.
In fact, Moore believes that even the United States Supreme Court, which is expected to rule on gay marriage later this year, does not have the authority to redefine marriage.
“There’s nothing in the US Constitution that authorizes the Supreme Court of the United States or any federal court anywhere to misinterpret the word marriage to include something outside that,” Moore said recently. “Whether it’s about the equal protection clause, the due process clause, or the full faith and credit clause, they’re making these things up and they’re ruling on social matters… quote to me the Constitutional provision that gives the United States government the power to redefine marriage? You can’t find it.”
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to put the federal judge’s ruling on hold, which many court watchers have taken as a signal that they will ultimately legalize gay marriage at the federal level.
Watch President Obama discuss the issue in the Buzzfeed News video below.
RELATED:
1. Moore: Same-sex marriage today, polygamy and incest tomorrow
2. (Quiz) Who said it, Barack Obama or Roy Moore?
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— Cliff Sims (@Cliff_Sims) December 3, 2014
