Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore was suspended Friday by the Judicial Inquiry Commission after attempting to block same-sex marriage in the state.
The suspension of Chief Justice Roy Moore only adds to a political mess in Alabama: https://t.co/O1yBPXp2TG
— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) May 7, 2016
Alabama's top judge faces ethics charges over gay-marriage order https://t.co/F9pWu4q6I9 pic.twitter.com/RxENuRopxA
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) May 7, 2016
The Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission accused Moore of violating judicial ethics over his attempts in January to block same-sex marriage, even though the federal district and U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the same-sex marriage ban would violate the U.S. Constitution.
On Friday night Moore said: “The Judicial Inquiry Commission has no authority over the administrative orders of the chief justice of Alabama or the legal injunctions of the Alabama Supreme Court prohibiting probate judges from issuing same-sex marriage licenses.”
Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center said: “Chief Justice Roy Moore has disgraced his office for far too long. He’s such a religious zealot, such an egomaniac that he thinks he doesn’t have to follow federal court rulings he disagrees with. For the good of the state, he should be kicked out of office.”
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This is not the first time that Moore has been suspended from office. In 2003, the Court of the Judiciary removed Moore after he refused to remove a 2.5-ton Ten Commandments monument that he had commissioned in the Alabama State Judicial Building. A federal judge ruled that it was a violation of the separation of church and state, but Alabama re-elected him nine years later in 2012.
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Moore is currently suspended with pay and, if found guilty, he could lose his position for a second time.
