Alabama’s Chief Justice Roy Moore Continues To Defy Ruling On Same-Sex Marriage

Despite a ruling that overturned Alabama’s same-sex marriage ban, and a subsequent refusal by an appeals court to extend a brief stay placed on that ruling, Chief Justice Roy Moore isn’t done fighting. The state’s highest judiciary official continues to tell justices to ignore the ruling, and to advise, counter to multiple court rulings across the country, that for officials to obey the court ruling would be to break the law.

Alabama’s same-sex marriage ban was overturned Friday, January 23rd. However, Chief Justice Roy Moore began advising certain justices to disobey the ruling, saying it didn’t apply to them. While the Federal judge who overturned the ban had initially denied a request for a stay, she, perhaps in response to Moore’s posturing, altered that decision over the weekend, agreeing to only a two-week stay. The stay was, she said, only to give the appeals court time to give an opinion.

Now, that appeals court has spoken, refusing to extend the stay, which was initially slated to end on January 9th. However, Roy Moore isn’t backing down. According to NBC, he issued a new memo on Tuesday, telling judges that they do not have to issue marriage licenses or officiate at marriages for same-sex couples.

Moore previously brought up this point before the same Federal judge, claiming that the ruling would apply only to the state’s Attorney General, and was assured that this was not the case, but that all justices who perform marriages must perform their duties, whether for a same-sex or opposite-sex couple.

It hasn’t stopped Moore though, from continuing to give Alabama’s justices advice that may land them in legal difficulties.

Moore is proud of his stance — he’s shared no fewer than ten stories, posts, and supportive links on his Facebook page, including supportive statements from NOM and the AFA. The SPLC describes both as groups that have “continued to pump out demonizing propaganda aimed at homosexuals,” and lists the AFA as a hate group.

The SPLC has already filed ethics complaints against Moore, and on Tuesday, filed further complaints, according to AL, over his attempts to subvert the law and the ruling of a Federal judge. Same-sex marriage will begin in Alabama in less than a week, and a Judicial Inquiry Commission will be making a decision about whether Chief Justice Roy Moore will face ethics charges.

[photo credit: Rainbow flag flapping in the wind]

Alabama’s Chief Justice Roy Moore Continues To Defy Ruling On Same-Sex Marriage