Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore is now suspended and faces removal from office after a state commission charged him with six counts of ethics violations. The move surrounds his actions against same-sex marriage. This January he ordered all probate judges in Alabama to NOT issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, despite the Supreme Court ruling in favor of this.

Despite rulings by both a federal judge and later, the U.S. Supreme Court, AL.com reports,

“Moore instructed probate judges throughout Alabama to ignore those higher courts and to refuse to issue licenses to same-sex couples.“

Moore and his attorney, who is the head of an anti-gay hate group, Liberty Counsel, last month held a press conference to explain his positions. He said,

“transsexualism is a known mental illness… [there] is nothing in writing that you will find that I told anybody to disobey a federal court order. That’s not what I said.”

The full document charging Moore is 293 pages, although most are footnotes and supporting case law and the charges are damning. He may not care since Moore will run for governor and losing his job over this will likely solidify his base.

Richard Cohen, President of The Southern Poverty Law Center, which filed the complaint against Judge Moore, says,

“Chief Justice Roy Moore has disgraced his office for far too long. 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.“

What he said. For now, Moore is suspended.

(via NCRM)