Last week,
a federal judge in Alabama ruled that Alabama's marriage equality ban(s) are unconstitutional and violate the equal protection and due process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution. And, yesterday
the same judge issued another ruling to the same effect. This seems to have caused Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore to have a
(public) hissy fit. He's stated that Alabama's officials should defy federal court orders and rulings regarding the right to marry for same-sex couples. And, now the SPLC has filed an ethics complaint against him.
From the SPLC:
The SPLC today filed a judicial ethics complaint against Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore over his public statements urging the governor and Alabama judges to defy federal law and enforce Alabama’s ban on same-sex marriages.
The complaint was filed with the Judicial Inquiry Commission of Alabama, which could recommend that Moore face ethics charges in the Alabama Court of the Judiciary. That court removed Moore from the office of chief justice 12 years ago after he refused to comply with a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state judicial building.
“Moore is once again wrapping himself in the Bible and thumbing his nose at the federal courts and federal law,” said SPLC President Richard Cohen. “As a private citizen, Moore is entitled to his views. But as the chief justice of Alabama, he has a responsibility to recognize the supremacy of federal law and to conform his conduct to the canons of judicial ethics.”
You can read the complaint
here.
From The New Civil Rights Movement:
After two federal rulings supporting the freedom to marry for Alabama same-sex couples, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore warned he would not succumb to "tyranny!" from the federal government. In a three-page fire-and-brimstone letter sent to sent Republican Governor Robert Bentley, Moore warned "the destruction of that institution is upon us by federal courts using specious pretexts based on the Equal Protection, Due Process and Full Faith and Credit Clauses of the United States Constitution."
Now, the Southern Poverty Law Center is getting involved. The decades-old civil rights group best known for reducing the size and power of the KKK and more recently for expanding the scope of its hate group definition to include anti-gay groups, among others, the SPLC has filed an ethics complaint today against Moore with the Judicial Inquiry Commission of Alabama – the same Commission that once before removed Moore from his job.
The Commission, the SPLC writes, "could recommend that Moore face ethics charges in the Alabama Court of the Judiciary."
The SPLC notes additional "violations by Moore, including publicly commenting on a pending case – the federal case that overturned the ban – as well as impending cases: the same-sex marriage cases likely to come before state judges, including Moore, if same-sex marriage is legalized in Alabama."
In the meantime, Judge Granade has clarified her ruling. You can find the order in the link to the below Equality Case Files tweet.