MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama’s Court of the Judiciary said it will soon decide whether to remove Alabama’s suspended chief justice, Roy Moore, from office after hearing Monday from both sides on his misconduct charges.
Moore is accused of violating judicial ethics by urging probate judges to defy the federal courts and keep denying marriage licenses to gays and lesbians, months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that everyone has a fundamental right to marry.
If the court agrees with the Judicial Inquiry Commission, Moore could be removed from office again, more than a decade after his first ouster, for refusing a federal order to take down a Ten Commandments statue he had installed in the court building.
Moore said his gay marriage guidance simply explained that a previous state ban on issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples remained in effect until rescinded by his court, despite a federal judge’s order to begin complying with the nation’s highest court.
His attorney, Mat Staver, argued Monday that Moore never told anyone to disobey the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage, and did nothing to warrant a misconduct conviction.
This defense “defies common sense,” countered John Carroll, a former federal magistrate representing the commission’s investigators.
Moore entered the packed courtroom, where he usually presides over Alabama’s Supreme Court, to applause from his supporters. Earlier, activists on both sides of the gay marriage debate held dueling rallies outside the judicial building.
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