Chief Justice Roy Moore to stand trial after court refuses to dismiss ethics charges

—

August 9, 2016

Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore (Photo: YouTube)

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — On Monday, the Alabama Court of the Judiciary issued an order denying State Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore’s request to dismiss ethics charges filed against him. The same court also denied a motion from the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission to dismiss Moore from the bench without trial.

The ethics charges stem from Moore’s defiance of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage in 2015. An administrative order issued by Moore in the wake of the ruling told state probate judges that the state supreme court’s ruling prohibiting the marriage of same-sex couples was still in place, regardless of what SCOTUS had to say about the issue.

While Moore’s attorneys attempted to argue that he was in no way ordering state officials to disobey Federal law, opposing counsel insisted that the message he sent was clear.

Judge Joiner, the head of the Alabama Court of the Judiciary, set Moore’s trial date for September 28. Both sides said in court that they did not believe the trial would last longer than a single day.

Culture warriors from both sides of the issues flocked to the hearing Monday, as the judge has become one of the most polarizing figures in U.S. politics. Some of the judge’s supporters carried signs reading “Judge Moore was Right,” while LGBT rights activists held up signs that said “#NoMoore.”

Moore was previously removed from the bench in 2003 when he refused to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from the Alabama Judicial Building. He was re-elected Chief Justice in 2013.

With Moore’s inability to escape a trial for ethics charges, the heads of each of the three branches of Alabama’s state government have now undergone serious legal proceedings within the past five months.

In June, Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard (R-Auburn) was convicted of 12 of 23 charges by a Lee County Jury in Opelika, which determined that he used his public office for personal gain. The judge sentenced him to a total of four years in prison, eight years on probation, and ordered to pay a $210,000 fine on 12 felony ethics violations.

Throughout the summer, Gov. Robert Bentley has been under threat of impeachment from a scandal regarding his former political advisor Rebeckah Caldwell-Mason. The Articles of Impeachment – currently in limbo – accuse Bentley of willful neglect of duty, corruption in office, incompetency, and “offenses of moral terpitude”. The governor has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.