Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore suspended over stance on gay marriage

Chief Justice Moore has maintained that Alabama's state law supersedes the US Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage.

|
Mickey Welsh/Montgomery Advertiser/AP
Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore testifies during his ethics trial before the Alabama Court of the Judiciary at the Alabama Judicial Building in Montgomery, Ala., on Sept. 28, 2016.

The chief justice of Alabama's Supreme Court, charged with defying federal court rulings that permit same-sex marriage, was suspended on Friday for a second time after being found guilty of violating judicial ethics, the Alabama Court of the Judiciary ruled.

Chief Justice Roy Moore had gone on trial Wednesday on charges that he violated Alabama's canons of judicial ethics with a Jan. 6 order that said probate judges were bound by state law banning gay marriage.

The Alabama Court of the Judiciary suspended Justice Moore, effective immediately, without pay for the remainder of his term, saying in a ruling that it had found "clear and convincing evidence" of ethical violations.

Moore's attorney said in a statement that he planned to appeal the decision to the Alabama Supreme Court.

The judiciary court's decision said Moore's Jan. 6 order to the probate judges showed "disregard for binding federal law."

This followed the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark June 2015 decision giving gay and lesbian couples the right to marry in all 50 states.

The chief justice, an outspoken opponent of same-sex unions, has insisted there was uncertainty among the state's probate judges after conflicting opinions on gay marriage from state and federal courts.

Moore's stance may seem odd given the Supreme Court decision but, as the Christian Science Monitor's Patrik Jonsson has reported, the chief justice is anything but typical.

He’s been compared to a modern-day George Wallace, the former Alabama governor who made the iconic “stand in the school house door” in defiance of federal rulings to integrate schools.

For many Americans, the attempt to essentially rewrite law is puzzling. But for many in Alabama and the broader South, Moore is just the sort of man they want atop their highest courts – someone not inclined to bow to Washington and who openly admits that his highest law is the Bible.

And he isn't bowing to the judiciary court's decision either.

"To suspend Chief Justice Moore for the duration of his term is a miscarriage of justice and we will appeal this case to the Alabama Supreme Court. This case is far from over," said Mat Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, which is representing Moore, in a statement.

The ruling also noted Moore's history with the state's judiciary court. In 2003, Moore was removed from the bench for defying a federal order to take down a Ten Commandments Monument he had installed in the state's judicial building. Voters re-elected him as chief justice in 2012.

The charges against him came after a series of ethics complaints filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has said Moore should be removed from office.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore suspended over stance on gay marriage
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2016/0930/Alabama-Chief-Justice-Roy-Moore-suspended-over-stance-on-gay-marriage
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe