BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — In a radio interview on The Matt Murphy Show on 1070 WAPI Thursday morning, Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore said “it would be a very hard decision” whether or not to recognize a federal Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage.
Chief Justice Moore spent the first several minutes of the interview detailing the position he’s laid out during the last few days, most notably in his 3-page letter to Alabama Governor Robert Bentley, following federal Judge Callie Granade ruling Alabama’s ban on same-sex marriage illegal.
Moore described several US Supreme Court and Alabama Supreme Court decisions bolstering his claim that lower federal courts hold no authority over the Alabama Constitution.
Toward the end of the segment, Murphy asked Chief Justice Moore how he would feel if the US Supreme Court rules gay marriage to be legal.
Matt Murphy: I know you hesitate to get into hypotheticals, but if the United States Supreme Court should determine that the ban on same sex marriage is unconstitutional, where would that leave you as chief justice? I know your personal position on the matter.
Roy Moore: It would be a very hard decision, because I know there’s nothing in the US Constitution that authorizes the Supreme Court of the United States or any federal court anywhere to misinterpret the word marriage to include something outside that. Whether it’s about the equal protection clause, the due process clause, or the full faith and credit clause. They’re making these things up and they’re ruling on social matters… quote to me the Constitutional provision that gives the United States government the power to redefine marriage? You can’t find it, Matt.
Matt Murphy: It sounds to me like in your answer you’re saying that if they were to decide that way that you know better.
Roy Moore: No, it’s not saying I know better, it’s that I know the Constitution, and the Constitution knows better. If you can tell me one part of that Constitution that gives them the power to define social policy, why don’t you tell me right now?
Murphy pressed the Chief Justice again to say whether or not he would be bound to honor the decision of the US Supreme Court.
We’ll cross that bridge, Matt, when we come to it…. It’s definitely a hypothetical. I’m telling you, In my opinion right now, and in the opinion of anybody that’s got any knowledge of the Constitution, there’s nothing in the Constitution that allows the United States Supreme court or federal district courts to redefine marriage.
You can listen to the entire interview here.
Liberal advocacy group the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) filed an official ethics complaint with the Judicial Inquiry Commission of Alabama in response to Moore’s statements to the press in recent days, saying the chief justice is “thumbing his nose at the federal courts and federal law.”
The US Supreme Court is expected to rule on the question of whether state bans on same-sex marriage violate the US Constitution by June of this year.
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— Elizabeth BeShears (@LizEBeesh) January 21, 2015
