AFA of PA ACTION ALERT
August 8, 2016
Issue
Judge Roy Moore’s Trial Begins Today
Details
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) filed a complaint with the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission (JIC) against that state’s Chief Justice Roy Moore. The charges focus solely on his Administrative Order issued in January 2016, in which he wrote that the 2015 orders of the Alabama Supreme Court remained in effect until the Court further indicates otherwise. Chief Justice Moore did not participate in the 2015 orders, which ruled that the Probate Judges must uphold the Alabama Sanctity of Marriage Act, which was approved by 81% of Alabama voters in June 2006. On May 6th the JIC forwarded those charges to the Alabama Court of the Judiciary, accusing the chief justice of violating judicial ethics in his opposition to same-sex marriage. Until that court hears and rules on those charges, Moore will be suspended with pay from his position atop the state’s highest court.
The Alabama ACLU, a federal court of appeals, and three federal District Courts all concluded this year that the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion does not automatically require the immediate issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples. But members of the JIC apparently think they know more than the courts, and decided to go after the Chief Justice for what amounts to a politically-motivated complaint. More proof that this is politically motivated is the brazen move by the JIC to hire John Carroll, a former Legal Director of the far-left SPLC, to prosecute Chief Justice Moore.
The complaints against Chief Justice Moore are not about ethical misconduct, but instead are an attack on his statements and administrative orders about the legal status of Alabama’s Sanctity of Marriage laws.
The JIC is wrong on the law and has no jurisdiction to render legal opinions anyway. It has already violated the rule of confidentiality by leaking the matter to the media and it exceeded its own jurisdiction.
Click here for action steps.
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