Alabama Chief Justice Will Face Ethics Trial For Telling Judges To Keep Gay Marriage Ban

Moore told probate judges to ignore the Supreme Court's 2015 ruling legalizing marriage equality
From: NewNowNext

 A judicial panel ruled Monday that the ethics case against Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore will go to trial next month.

Moore, who told state probate judges to ignore the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling on marriage equality, had tried to get the case dismissed.

 An alternate petition had asked to remove Moore from the bench without a hearing. Instead, on September 28, a panel nine judges will decide whether Moore violated judicial ethics and determine his punishment.

In January, Moore sent a memo to judges insisting Alabama’s ban on marriage equality was still in effect, even though the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage six months earlier and a federal judge indicated Alabama should heed that ruling.

 Representing the Judicial Inquiry Commission, John Carroll told the court Moore abused his power as chief justice to promote his personal opinion against same-sex marriage. But Moore’s attorney, Mat Staver of the notorious Liberty Counsel, said Moore was only clarifying the situation because probate judges were asking questions.

“They said I tried to influence them. I said it’s their decision,” Moore told supporters outside. He insisted the complaint was filed by people who “don’t want anybody opposing any agenda of the homosexual movement.”

Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, described Moore as “the ayatollah of Alabama.”

“Alabama is a great state and deserves better than a chief justice who thinks he is above the law.”

It wouldn’t be Moore’s first time kicked out of office: He was unseated in 2003 for refusing to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from in front of the state courthouse.