Alabama judge defends his gay marriage ban memo

MONTGOMERY, Alabama—Suspended Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore has formally defended the gay marriage memo that put his judicial career in peril, saying he was merely trying to answer questions from probate judges that his fellow justices would not address.

Moore could be removed from office if the state’s Court of the Judiciary decides he violated judicial ethics by urging probate judges to defy the US Supreme Court on gay marriage.

The ethics complaint stems from a January memo he sent probate judges saying an Alabama Supreme Court injunction against same-sex marriage remained in “full force and effect” despite a federal judge’s order to comply with the US Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision, which effectively legalized gay marriage six months earlier.

Moore’s filing on Tuesday says he never told probate judges what to do and was only informing them that the state injunction had not been lifted.

The Judicial Inquiry Commission “has tried to write a story that does not exist,” Moore’s attorney Mat Staver said Wednesday.

“Moore never ordered the probate judges to disregard the US Supreme Court’s marriage opinion, but that is the slanderous narrative of the JIC. The JIC has no case and never should have filed the baseless charge,” Staver’s statement said.

The Court of the Judiciary, a panel that hears misconduct accusations against judges, will hear arguments on Aug. 8 on Moore’s request. (AP)