Alabama Judicial Court to rule on chief justice’s ouster

The Alabama Court of the Judiciary heard arguments Monday regarding whether Chief Justice Roy Moore should remain in office.

The JIC alleges Moore ordered the state’s probate judges in January to disobey federal law when he told them not to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples until an apparent conflict with state and federal law is resolved.

Moore’s attorney, Matt Staver, said Moore did not order probate judges to directly violate the U.S. Supreme Court.

“We are here to talk about Chief Justice Roy Moore and his repeated refusal to follow the rule of law”, John Carroll, a former federal magistrate representing the Judicial Inquiry Commission, told the court.

Michael Joiner, chief judge of the court of the judiciary, had said at the end of the hearing that depending on how the COJ ruled on the motions, a full-fledged trial may be held on the charges September 28.

The trial for Moore will begin at 9 a.m., September 28, in the Alabama Supreme Court in Montgomery.

“They’re the ones who hired the prosecutor, they’re the ones that brought the case for the second time”, Moore said of the SPLC after the hearing.

“Until further decision by the Alabama Supreme Court, the existing orders of the Alabama Supreme Court that Alabama probate judges have a ministerial duty not to issue any marriage license contrary to the Alabama Sanctity of Marriage Amendment or the Alabama Marriage Protection Act remain in full force and effect”, Moore had stated in his January order.

“They have their opinions and we understand that, but our goal is to make sure that every American is treated equally and no one is discriminated against”, Wolfe-Sisson said. His first ouster was in 2003, for refusing a federal order to remove a Ten Commandments statue he had installed in the court building.

Carroll said Moore was on a mission to fight same-sex weddings from taking place in the state.

The report said 28 percent picked Moore, 24 percent were undecided, Attorney General Luther Strange got 9 percent and another handful each drew support in the single digits.

Moore said the complaint was filed against him by people who “don’t want anybody opposing any agenda of the homosexual movement”.

Another Opelika attorney and Court of the Judiciary Judge Lucinda Samford Cannon was in the courtroom for the hearing.

Moore is accused of violating judicial ethics by urging probate judges in a January order to defy the federal courts after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that gays and lesbians have a fundamental right to marry.

“Before and after the hearing Moore supporters many carrying signs including “Judge Moore was Right” and gay rights groups that held signs such as “#NoMoore” exchanged words outside the Helflin-Torbert Judicial Building where the hearing was held in Montgomery.

A hearing on misconduct allegations against Alabama’s suspended chief justice, Roy Moore, has concluded.

Moore said his order was simply an effort to answer the probate judges’ questions.

Sherry Robinson, a mother of eight, was one who drove from Hoover to stand with Moore saying he has consistently upheld the law and that the Alabama chief justice is being “sacrificed for a political agenda”.

Investigators with the Judicial Inquiry Commission are asking the court to oust Moore without a trial, but Moore opposes the request.

Carroll said despite Moore’s recusal, he began writing memos to his fellow justices on the case.

The court concluded its hearing Monday around 3:45 PM EDT.

Both supporters and opponents of Moore are planning noontime rallies outside Alabama’s main judicial building before the hearing.