MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - The Latest on Chief Justice Roy Moore’s removal from Alabama Supreme Court bench over gay marriage (all times local):
2:30 p.m.
Roy Moore has issued a statement after being permanently suspended as Alabama chief justice for ethics violations.
Moore is calling his punishment Friday by Alabama’s Court of the Judiciary 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 found to have defied the U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage nationwide.
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12:30 p.m.
Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore was removed from the bench Friday for defying the U.S. Supreme Court on gay marriage, more than a decade after he got in trouble for refusing federal orders to move a Ten Commandments monument.
By suspending Moore for the rest of his term, the nine-member Alabama Court of the Judiciary has effectively removed him from office for the second time.
The outspoken Christian conservative was ousted from office in 2013 for his stand in defense of the 2 ½ ton monument he had installed in the state judicial building, but voters later re-elected him.
The judiciary court ruled that Moore defied law already clearly settled by the high court’s Obergefell vs. Hodges ruling when he told Alabama’s probate judges six months later that they were still bound by a 2015 state court order to deny marriage licenses to gays and lesbians.
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