https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztkbpA9Jazw
(Video above: Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore interviewed by Fox News’s Chris Wallace)
During an appearance on Fox News Sunday, Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore said he would not personally “be bound” by a Supreme Court ruling redefining gay marriage. Moore compared the hypothetical ruling — which is expected to be handed down sometime this summer — to a mid-1800s Supreme Court ruling in favor of slavery. Both rulings, he said, would be “completely contradictory to the Constitution” and therefore should not be the law of the land.
“If a case comes before me and the Supreme Court has decided what marriage is… I would not be bound thereby,” said Moore. “I could recuse or dissent, as a justice from Delaware did in the Dred Scott case in 1857. They ruled black people were property. Should a court today obey such a ruling that is completely contradictory to the Constitution?”
However, Moore conceded that “state courts are bound by the rulings of the United States Supreme Court,” indicating that while he would not personally give in to such a ruling, Alabama’s state courts would have to.
Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace noted that Moore had previously been removed from office for defying the ruling of a federal judge, and suggested he may be heading in that direction again. Moore was undeterred.
“When federal courts start changing our Constitution by defining words that are not even there, like marriage — they’re going to do the same thing with family in the future — when a word’s not in the Constitution, clearly the powers of the Supreme Court do not allow them to redefine words and seize power,” he said. “Power’s not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited to it by the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. This power over marriage, which came from God under our organic law, is not to be redefined by the United States Supreme Court or any federal court… They may do it, but they may do wrongfully, just like they did in Dred Scott and Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 where they said separate but equal was the policy of the United States.”
The latest development in Alabama’s same-sex marriage drama is that the state Supreme Court is planning to rule on whether Alabama’s probate judges are violating the Alabama constitution by issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
For more of Yellowhammer’s coverage on this issue, beginning with the most recent and working back, check out the links below:
1. Alabama Supreme Court to consider whether probate judges should cease issuing gay marriage licenses
2. Federal judge: Obey me, not Moore, issue same sex marriage licenses
3. Shelby & Sessions co-sponsor bill to leave gay marriage to the states
4. Surprise: New York Times agrees with Roy More, kind of
5. (Video) Obama: Roy Moore’s done this before, Feds will win
6. Is Alabama next? Bakers to be fined up to $150k for refusing gay customers
7. Bentley: Same-sex marriage not comparable to 1960s civil rights fight
8. (Quiz) Who said it, Barack Obama or Roy Moore?
9. Moore: Same-sex marriage today, polygamy and incest tomorrow
10. Bentley: No action will be taken against Probate Judges who issue same sex marriage licenses
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— Cliff Sims (@Cliff_Sims) December 3, 2014
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