![\"Judge](\"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Judge_Roy_Moore.jpg\")
<\/a>Judge Roy Moore<\/p><\/div>\n
Judicial officials in Alabama have chosen to \u201cignore the law and the rules\u201d by imposing a term-long unpaid suspension on state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, his lawyers are charging.<\/p>\n
The banishment until the end of Moore\u2019s term was imposed by a Court of the Judiciary panel led by J. Michael Joiner, a criminal appeals judge, after the Judicial Inquiry Commission, at the behest of the Southern Poverty Law Center, claimed Moore essentially told probate judges to disobey the law.<\/p>\n
Joiner was unresponsive to a WND inquiry seeking a comment. An aide transferred a WND call to Joiner\u2019s extension, where someone in the chambers picked up the phone and immediately hung up.<\/p>\n
The case was developed with the help of a former SPLC official who was hired by the JIC for the case.<\/p>\n
Moore\u2019s legal representatives at Liberty Counsel<\/a> were outraged, arguing the COJ didn\u2019t even follow the law in its decision.<\/p>\n \u201cTo suspend Chief Justice Moore for the rest of his term is the same as removal,\u201d said Liberty Counsel Chairman Mat Staver. \u201cThe COJ lacked the unanimous votes to remove the chief, so the majority instead chose to ignore the law and the rules.\u201d<\/p>\n He blasted the organization as biased.<\/p>\n \u201cThe rule of law should trump political agendas. Sadly, today that is not the case. What this decision tells us today is that Montgomery has a long way to go to weed out abuse of political power and restore the rule of law,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The COJ decision said: \u201cA majority of this court also agrees with the JIC that the only appropriate sanction for Chief Justice Moore is removal from office. Removal of a judge from office, however, requires \u2018the concurrence of all members sitting.\u2019 Rule 16, R.P. Ala. Ct. Jud.\u201d<\/p>\n Staver explained: \u201cIt is clear there was not a unanimous concurrence to remove the chief from office, so the COJ suspends him for the remainder of his term. In other words, the COJ did what the rules say they cannot do. There is no meaningful difference between suspension for the remaining of the term and removal from office.\u201d<\/p>\n He said the evidence presented at a hearing earlier this week showed Moore \u201cshould be reinstated.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe did nothing wrong. The JIC presented no live testimony or affidavits. The charges should be dismissed. Today\u2019s decision by the COJ to suspend the chief for the rest of his term throws the rule of law out the window. This system must be changed.\u201d<\/p>\n The ruling from the COJ was signed by W.N. Watson, L. Gwaltney McCollum, Laura Petro, Lucinda Samford Cannon, Joiner, Jeffrey Brock, James W. Woodrock Jr., S. Dagnal Rowe and Daryl O. Perkins.<\/a><\/p>\n Moore told WND that the case was flawed from the beginning, and, consequently, the attorney general refused to prosecute.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was a politically motivated effort by radical homosexual and transgender groups to remove me as chief justice of the Supreme Court because of outspoken opposition to their immoral agenda,\u201d Moore said. \u201cThis opinion violates not only the legal standards of evidence but also the rule of law which states that no judge can be removed from office except by unanimous vote.\u201d<\/p>\n In defense of Moore,<\/a> Liberty Counsel contended the basis of SPLC\u2019s attack on Moore is nothing but his personal stance on marriage.<\/p>\n SPLC has a long history of unrelenting attacks on anyone who fails to toe its line of support for homosexuality and same-sex \u201cmarriage.\u201d The organization, in pursuit of that agenda, earlier this year had to backtrack when it labeled Dr. Ben Carson, former GOP presidential candidate and one of the most admired men in America, as a \u201chater\u201d because of its views on marriage.<\/p>\n Accusations that the JIC was acting politically was an issue from the outset.<\/p>\n Staver said earlier: \u201cThe politically motivated complaints filed with the JIC have no basis in the Canons of Judicial Ethics. The Alabama Supreme Court is the only body that has statutory authority to overrule administrative orders of the chief justice. See \u00a7 12-5-20, Ala. Code 1975. The complaints filed against the chief justice ask the JIC to usurp the legal authority of the justices of the Alabama Supreme Court to review the administrative orders of the chief justice.\u201d<\/p>\n All six of the charges against Moore stem from his administrative order that, Liberty Counsel said, \u201cmerely advised probate judges that the prior Alabama Supreme Court orders from 2015 remained in effect while the court was reviewing the matter.\u201d<\/p>\n The JIC had claimed Moore\u2019s order \u201cdirected the probate judges to violate federal court rulings,\u201d but Liberty quoted from its text, where Moore said, \u201cI am not at liberty to provide any guidance to the Alabama probate judges on the effect of Obergefell on the existing orders of the Alabama Supreme Court. That issue remains before the entire court which continues to deliberate on the matter.\u201d<\/p>\n WND reported last month<\/a> Moore released internal court communications showing he had tried several times to get the justices to make that decision.<\/p>\n He told his fellow judges \u201cone way or the other: to acquiesce in Obergefell and retreat from our March orders or reject Obergefell and maintain our orders in place.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAny decision is better than no decision at all,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe uncertainty facing the probate judges [those who issue marriage licenses in the state] is enormous. \u2026 They need guidance from us on this court\u2019s view.\u201d<\/p>\n He later repeated his plea.<\/p>\n The COJ\u2019s ruling selectively quoted from various court decisions and precedents, including Moore\u2019s memo to probate judges, the only officials in Alabama who grant marriage licenses.<\/p>\n The memo came because the state Supreme Court had failed, over months, to alter its ruling on marriage.<\/p>\n <\/i>Staver previously warned<\/a> that the Alabama procedure for complaints regarding judges gives a commission too much power: They can remove a judge from the bench based on nothing more than someone\u2019s unproven claim.<\/p>\n The process also poses a danger to justice, because an activist on the commission, or in the Court of the Judiciary, can reach an improper result by getting \u201ca few other people to go along.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMight makes right\u201d under the state\u2019s system, he said.<\/p>\n SPLC\u2019s history of politically motivated actions also was a factor, although the COJ did not address it.<\/p>\n Liberty Counsel, which also has been a target if SPLC attacks, said in a report last fall that by \u201cfalsely and recklessly labeling Christian ministries as \u2018hate groups,\u2019 the SPLC is directly responsible for the case of a man who intended to commit mass murder targeted against a policy organization in Washington, D.C.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOn August 15, 2012, Floyd Corkins went to the Family Research Council with a gun and a bag filled with ammunition and Chick-fil-A sandwiches. His stated purpose was to kill as many employees of the Family Research Council as possible and then to smear Chick-fil-A sandwiches in their faces (because the founder of the food chain said he believed in marriage as a man and a woman). Fortunately, Mr. Corkins was stopped by the security guard, who was shot in the process. Corkins is now serving time in prison. Mr. Corkins admitted to the court that he learned of the Family Research Council by reading the SPLC\u2019s hate map.\u201d<\/p>\n Moore also was removed from the same office more than a decade ago for installing a Ten Commandments monument in a state building as a representation of the foundation of American law.<\/p>\n But Moore\u2019s career may not be over; there are discussions about running for governor.<\/p>\n WND reported last month<\/a> a poll showed Moore was the favorite among Republicans in Alabama for governor in 2018.<\/p>\n