It is a serious shame that a nation like America allows elected officials to serve in a position of power without even a rudimentary understanding of the U.S. Constitution; even though they swear an oath to defend and uphold the founding document as the law of the land. It is also a shame that in America powerful elected evangelicals have made the Christian bible “their” law of the land with veritable impunity because most Americans and politicians are terrified of the religious right. Now a notorious Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice, Roy Moore, has unilaterally issued a bible-based judicial order overturning a six-month old United States Supreme Court ruling.
Roy Moore has had trouble before attempting to rule by dictatorial theocracy, but as an uber-conservative evangelical with no basic comprehension of the United States Constitution, the one he swore to his god to uphold, one expects he will never give up issuing judicial edicts from the bible. This week, still smarting from a June Supreme Court ruling banning states from denying same-sex couples the same 14th Amendment rights as opposite-sex couples, Moore issued orders to all Alabama courts to “immediately stop issuing same sex marriage licenses.”
Moore claims that according to his reading of the bible, the Supreme Court decision “that struck down laws banning same-sex marriage in Michigan, Kentucky, and Tennessee do not affect Alabama’s similarly illegal statutes.” In a couple of Alabama counties judges are continuing to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples. However, some Alabama judges have obeyed Moore and agree that Alabama courts have a biblical “duty to not issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples,” and as an act of childish petulance and protest some are refusing to issue any marriage licenses.
Not only is Moore completely ignorant of the 14th Amendment, the one the “High Court ruled requires a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex, and recognize same-sex marriages licensed and performed in other states,” he just cannot comprehend a simple and very straightforward decision. According to Moore, he has to stop same-sex marriages in Alabama because the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling was just too darn “confusing” to an evangelical Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice. According to Moore, there will be no more marriage licenses issued in Alabama until an “Alabama state Supreme Court ruling decides whether the reasoning of the High Court ruling made any sense for an evangelical state like Alabama.”
Moore wrote,
“Until there is a decision by the Alabama Supreme Court, the existing orders of the Alabama Supreme Court that probate judges have a ministerial duty not to issue any marriage license contrary to the Alabama Sanctity of Marriage Amendment or the Alabama Marriage Protection Act remain in full force and effect.”
According to Moore, his role as the evangelical “administrative head of the state court system” empowers him to “take affirmative action to correct or alleviate any situation adversely affecting the administration of justice within the state.” He also claimed that despite the High Court ruling, “many Alabama judges are only issuing licenses to opposite-sex couples and some are not issuing any licenses;” a completely spiteful action Moore is behind. Instead of ordering all Alabama judges to adhere to the U.S. Constitution and follow the ruling from the High Court, Moore claims that following the law of the land, and the SCOTUS ruling “adversely affects the administration of justice in this state.”
It would be futile to encourage Roy Moore to at least peruse the so-called Supremacy Clause in the U.S. Constitution’s Article VI because he is of the same mind as the County Clerk Kim Davis who insists neither a Supreme Court ruling nor the U.S. Constitution is the law of the land; Roy Moore, Kim Davis and their ilk are convinced that the bible-god is the law of the land despite that particular statute, amendment, or clause is nowhere to be found in the Constitution that the preponderance of American elected officials follow according to their sworn oath of office.
As a statement by Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AUSCS) says, and any 8th grade simpleton knows, “the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June was binding on the probate courts of all Alabama counties.” Indeed, any High Court ruling is binding on all courts, and all states, and all counties in the United States. The executive director of AUSCS, Reverend Barry W. Lynn, said in the statement what most people aware of Moore already know;
“Moore is a dangerous demagogue who seems to believe that he can overrule our nation’s highest court from his legal fiefdom in Montgomery. He can’t, and state and local official should continue to ignore him.”
No, ignoring a dangerous demagogue like Moore may seem like a good idea, but a better one is removing the “dangerous dictatorial theocrat” from a position of power. Evicting Roy Moore from the Alabama Supreme Court is exactly what the Southern Poverty Law Center has called for, if the evangelical right does not overrule them.
The judicial court of Alabama did remove the Mullah Moore in the past for violating the Constitution and Court he said were subservient his bible, and if they are really Americans and not fanatical onward Christian soldiers they will evict the evangelical maniac immediately and with extreme prejudice; if for no other reason than to teach Moore that he is so much more than just a bad judge playing tyrannical theocrat. He is a sad excuse for a judge and an American who cannot follow either the Constitution or his own god’s instructions in his copy of the Christian bible to obey government authorities who determined over 237 years ago that the U.S. Constitution and the Supreme Court, not the Christian bible or Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, is the law of the land.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn't look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
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