Alabama chief justice ousted for rest of term

Ruling cites defiance over gay marriage

Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore testifi es at his ethics trial Friday in Montgomery, saying he never set out to defy the U.S. Supreme Court.
Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore testifi es at his ethics trial Friday in Montgomery, saying he never set out to defy the U.S. Supreme Court.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore was suspended from the bench Friday for defying the U.S. Supreme Court on gay marriage, more than a decade after he was ousted for disobeying a federal order to take down a 2½-ton monument to the Ten Commandments.

The nine-member Alabama Court of the Judiciary suspended Moore without pay for the remainder of his term. While the court stopped short of outright removing him as they did in 2003, the punishment has the same effect, ending his rule as Alabama's top jurist. His term ends in 2019, and Moore, now 69, will be barred by law from running again at that time because of his age.

The judiciary court ruled that Moore defied law already clearly settled by the high court's Obergefell v. Hodges ruling when he told Alabama's 68 probate judges six months later that they were still bound by a 2015 state court order to deny marriage licenses to gay couples.

"Beyond question, at the time he issued the January 6, 2016, order, Chief Justice Roy Moore knew about Obergefell and its clear holding that the United States Constitution protects the right of same-sex couples to marry," the court wrote in the unanimous decision.

[INTERACTIVE MAP: History of gay marriage and the courts]

They said Moore also flouted a federal judge's order that enjoined the judges from enforcing Alabama's same-sex-marriage ban after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision.

The 50-page decision indicated that a majority of justices wanted to completely remove Moore -- not just suspend him without pay -- but they lacked unanimous agreement.

Moore said the decision violates the standards of evidence and the requirement of a unanimous vote to remove a judge, and his lawyer announced an appeal to the Alabama Supreme Court.

It "clearly reflects the corrupt nature of our political and legal system at our highest level," Moore said in a statement. "This was a politically motivated effort by radical homosexual and transgender groups to remove me as chief justice of the Supreme Court because of outspoken opposition to their immoral agenda."

In his 93-page order in January, Moore had condemned the gay-rights movement as leading to a "wasteland of sexual anarchy" and wrote, in the context of the U.S. Supreme Court decision, of the "duty to disregard illegal orders."

The fight over same-sex marriage in Alabama was already underway when the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision. But Moore wrote that federal decision was not binding on Alabama directly. Without a final ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court, he said, the question was still open, and he informed the state's probate judges that they had a "ministerial duty" to refuse licenses to same-sex couples until a state-level decision was handed down.

Moore's punishment comes amid upheaval in all three branches of Alabama's government. The Republican speaker of the state House of Representatives was removed from office this summer for criminal ethics violations.

A legislative committee is weighing whether Gov. Robert Bentley should be impeached over a sex scandal involving a top aide.

The president of the civil-rights organization that filed the ethics complaint against Moore in 2003 and 2016 praised the decision as a victory for the state.

"Moore was elected to be a judge, not a preacher. It's something that he never seemed to understand," said Richard Cohen of the Southern Poverty Law Center. "My parting words are good riddance to the Ayatollah of Alabama."

Moore's attorney, Mat Staver, called it a "miscarriage of justice."

"The rule of law should trump political agendas. Sadly, today that is not the case. What this decision tells us today is that Montgomery has a long way to go to weed out abuse of political power and restore the rule of law," said Staver, who also represented Kentucky clerk Kim Davis in her refusal to issue marriage licenses to gay couples.

Moore had already been suspended from the bench since May, when the state's Judicial Inquiry Commission accused him of violating judicial ethics.

By the end of his term in 2019, he'll be beyond the age limit of 70 for judges,̶ ̶u̶n̶l̶e̶s̶s̶ ̶v̶o̶t̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶r̶a̶i̶s̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶l̶i̶m̶i̶t̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶N̶o̶v̶e̶m̶b̶e̶r̶.*

The Republican judge has long been a polarizing figure, known for conservative legal views that sometimes seem to mix with theology.

Soon after his first election as chief justice, he installed the boulder-sized Ten Commandments monument in the rotunda of the state judicial building.

Moore called the federal judge's order to remove it unlawful and said it infringed on his right to "acknowledge God."

Moore's stands have won him loyal followers and passionate critics. Supporters gave him a standing ovation as he entered the ornate courtroom to testify on Wednesday, while critics waved rainbow flags and signs outside saying "Y'all means All," and more simply, "Bye."

Testifying in his defense, Moore contended that his January order did not represent defiance, and that he merely intended to clarify that the Alabama Supreme Court still had to decide what to do with its earlier order upholding the state's gay-marriage ban in light of the Obergefell decision.

"I gave them a status in the case, a status of the facts that these orders exist. That is all I did," Moore testified.

But lawyers for the Judicial Inquiry Commission told the court that Moore -- who once referred to judicial rulings allowing gay marriage as "tyranny" -- had been on a mission to block gay marriage in Alabama.

"We are here 13 years later because the chief justice learned nothing from his first removal. He continues to defy the law," attorney John Carroll argued.

In the years after his first removal, Moore ran twice for governor, though he finished far behind in the Republican primaries.

He considered running for president in 2012 but decided instead to run again for chief justice.

His victory without a runoff in the 2012 Republican primary rattled the state's political establishment, and many high-profile Republicans openly supported the Democrat in the general election. He won with a slim majority.

What Moore will do next is a matter of speculation in Montgomery: Some say he may run for attorney general, others say governor. But most everyone agrees that he will remain in the public eye.

"The last time he was kicked off as chief justice, he ran for governor," said Jack Campbell, a Republican consultant and a former spokesman for the state Supreme Court. "I don't think he's done."

Information for this article was contributed by Kim Chandler of The Associated Press and by Campbell Robertson of The New York Times.

A Section on 10/01/2016

*CORRECTION: The age limit for elected offices in Alabama would be raised if voters in that state approve a measure on the November ballot, but the measure would not apply to judges. The Associated Press provided incorrect information on the ballot measure in this article.

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