For Roy Moore, it’s deja vu all over again. The now former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court has been removed from the bench for the second time in his career.
Moore was found guilty on all six charges for defying the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 decision that legalized same-sex marriage. He’s suspended without pay for the remainder of his term and will have to pay all court costs.
In January, he ordered local judges not to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples. At his ethics trial Wednesday, Moore testified that the order was just a status report to clear up confusion among state judges.
Moore is calling his punishment the result of a “politically motivated effort by radical homosexual and transgender groups,” who targeted him because of what he calls his “outspoken opposition to their immoral agenda.”
Moore was ousted from his position as Chief Justice in 2003 when he refused a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument he put up in the state judicial building. Alabama voters later reelected him to the bench.
Moore’s attorney, Mat Staver with the Liberty Council, says they are appealing the decision.
According to AL.com, Governor Robert Bentley says he will not appoint Moore’s replacement because, he says, Moore was suspended not removed.