11:20 p.m.: Updated to include a statement from Chief Justice Roy Moore and his legal counsel.
Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore is facing charges by the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission in connection with his handling of Alabama's same-sex marriage ban and federal court rulings.
For the second time in his career on the Alabama Supreme Court, Moore may face the possibility of removal from his post on the state's highest court. The complaints issued by the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission will go before the Alabama Court of the Judiciary, where the court will have the authority to remove Moore from office.
The Court of the Judiciary could also choose to impose a less strict punishment or deny the complaints that Moore unethically tried to prevent same-sex marriage from occurring in the state.
Until the Court of the Judiciary makes a ruling in the case, Moore will be suspended with pay.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights and public interest law advocacy organization, made the complaints against Moore. In a statement issued by the organization's president, Richard Cohen, the organization said Moore violated his oath of office and the Alabama Canons of Judicial Ethics multiple times.
"Chief Justice Roy Moore has disgraced his office for far too long," Cohen said in the statement. "He’s such a religious zealot, such an egomaniac that he thinks he doesn’t have to follow federal court rulings he disagrees with. For the good of the state, he should be kicked out of office."
In January 2015, Moore issued an order to the state's probate judges to essentially ignore the ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court. Moore asserted that the U.S. Supreme Court's opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges June 26 of that year applied only to the case's plaintiffs.
Moore's legal counsel, the Liberty Council, issued a press release Friday night vowing to vigorously fight the charges against Moore. According to the Liberty Council, a federal Court of Appeals and two federal district courts issued orders similar to Moore's.
“The Alabama Supreme Court has repeatedly slapped down the JIC for wading into legal arguments and has reminded the JIC [it] is it not a court of law," said Liberty Council founder and chairman Mat Staver in the release. "Yet, the JIC has once again veered from its duty and now seeks to resolve a legal dispute that can only be resolved by the Alabama Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court."
The release states the commission's charges are based solely on the interpretation of the law, which is out of their legal jurisdiction. Moore has repeatedly asserted the SPLC's complaints as politically motivated. In April, Moore urged the commission to drop the charges against him.
“The Judicial Inquiry Commission has no authority over the administrative orders of the Chief Justice of Alabama or the legal injunction of the Alabama Supreme Court prohibiting probate judges from issuing same-sex marriage licenses," Moore said in the press release. "We intend to fight this agenda vigorously and expect to prevail."
The SPLC's discontent with Moore did not begin this year.
Initial complaints were filed with the commission by the SPLC more than a year ago in January 2015 after Moore issued a statement instructing the state's 68 probate judges to ignore a ruling by a federal court in Mobile, according to the complaint.
Moore issued the directive after Judge Callie V. Granade struck down the state's same-sex marriage ban. Her ruling would have essentially permitted same-sex marriage in the state, but she placed a stay on her ruling, delaying its effects until after the U.S. Supreme Court made a final decision.
The SPLC filed two supplements to their January 2015 ruling last year as well as a third supplement in January 2016.
The Judicial Inquiry Commission, which functions similarly to a grand jury in a criminal case, ruled on the SPLC complaints Friday, deciding to issue the charges against Moore. The proceedings were secret until the commission filed the complaints today.
In addition to the allegation that Moore improperly advised state probate judges to violate federal court orders, the commission's charges also allege that Moore violated the state judicial ethics code by repeatedly commenting on cases under litigation, disgracing his office by belittling the federal courts and threatening to defy them and using his office to benefit a private organization, the Foundation for Moral Law.
With Moore now under indictment by the Judicial Inquiry Commission, all three branches of the Alabama government are now facing major scandals, and the three highest positioned men in Alabama face the possibility of removal from office.
Moore was removed from office once before in 2003 after refusing to remove a granite Ten Commandments monument from the judicial building in Montgomery. Moore was removed by the Court of the Judiciary, the same court before which he now faces charges.
This story is breaking, and new details will be added as they emerge.
You can view the complaint issued by the commission here:
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