Joe.My.God. LGBT News
Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, flanked by his hate group leader wife and Liberty Counsel head Mat Staver, this afternoon held a press conference to denounce the mentally ill “atheists, homosexuals, and transgenders” who conspired with the SPLC to file ethics complaints against him with the state Judicial Inquiry Commission. AL.com reports:
The JIC, which could determine whether Moore is brought up on ethics charges, is the wrong venue to bring the complaint, according to the chief justice and his attorney, Mat Staver. They said the SPLC, Human Rights Campaign and other groups should bring the complaint instead to the U.S. Supreme Court.
After the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling that made same-sex marriage legal in America, Moore ordered the state’s probate justices not to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. Moore maintained that the Supreme Court ruling had no bearing on Alabama’s constitutional ban on gay marriage.
“This is not about religion,” Moore said at the press conference. “This is about my marriage and my legal orders.” Asked why he called the press conference, Staver said he was not anticipating an immediate ruling by the JIC, but wanted to clear up what he believed were mischaracterizations. Moore said his orders to probate judges never instructed them to defy a federal order.
From the Liberty Counsel:
The politically motivated complaints filed with the JIC have no basis in the Canons of Judicial Ethics. The Alabama Supreme Court is the only body that has statutory authority to overrule administrative orders of the Chief Justice. See § 12-5-20, Ala. Code 1975.
The complaints filed against the Chief Justice ask the JIC to usurp the legal authority of the Justices of the Alabama Supreme Court to review the administrative orders of the Chief Justice.
Those complaints also pose a threat to the doctrine of judicial independence. Judges must be free to exercise their considered judgment without the threat of being attacked by organizations and individuals who wish to misuse the ethical process to further a radical political agenda.
Question: why does chief justice Moore believe the law of the land doesn’t apply to him?
— Josh Moon (@Josh_Moon) April 27, 2016
Staver: at no time has Moore advocated disobedience to the SCOTUS or federal courts — Josh Moon (@Josh_Moon) April 27, 2016
RELATED: Totally without any help from daddy, drug charges have been dropped against Moore’s son.
Moore in January had pleaded not guilty and waived arraignment on charges in an indictment for unlawful possession of a controlled substance (alprazolam), a felony, and possession of marijuana second degree, a misdemeanor.
Moore’s jury trial had been set for March 2 before Circuit Judge Jeffery W. Kelley, according to court records. But court records show that on Feb. 1 the charges were nolle prossed – or dropped – after Caleb Moore enrolled in a pretrial diversion program of the district attorney, according to an order from Kelley.