Chief Justice Roy Moore said Wednesday that an ethics probe against his order against marriage equality is political, and brought on by mentally ill trans citizens.
Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore accused "atheists, homosexuals and transgender individuals" of bringing politically motivated complaint against his administrative order against marriage equality in the state.
"This is about legalism. This is about what the law is," Moore stated at press conference Wednesday.
The complaint was filed with the Judicial Inquiry Commission of Alabama (JIC), which will launch an ethics probe into Moore's order.
is not about religion," Moore said. "This is about my marriage and my legal orders." The judge believes its in his legal purview to determine the legality of marriage equality, even though a 2015 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that all were entitled to marriage.The judge cited the actions of one Ambrosia Starling, a transsexual citizen of Alabama who staged a mock wedding on the courthouse steps in January.
Moore referred to Starling as "a tranvestite," a word deemed offense by the Trans community, then gave a pause and a stern look at the reporters in the room. He said that the mock wedding was against the orders of the Alabama Supreme Court, and yet nothing was done to Starling and the people who accompanied her.
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"We in a serious time in our country," Moore continued. "A time when people who just a few years ago, would have been ascribed a mental illness, a mental disorder." The chief justice was referring to Starling and other trans people, using the term "gender identity disorder," another which fell out of use long ago.
"This is about judicial independence," Moore asserted. "About the power of the chief justice to speak."
The U.S. legal system has long maintained that federal law, including decisions made by the Supreme Court, trump state law, including the decisions of a state's chief justice.