How many times can someone be fired from the same job? Civil rights groups would like that number to be two.
There’s a reason many high-level judges in America are appointed and not elected. Interpreting and applying the law should never be a political process, and yet in many states, it is.
Take Alabama, where even the office of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is an elected position. Worse, Alabama allows voters to vote straight party line with the pull of a single lever, almost ensuring every Republican candidate a win.
Alabama’s Chief Justice, Roy Moore, was removed from his job – fired if you like – by the Alabama Court of the Judiciary for his repeated refusal to remove a 5280 pound granite monument of the Ten Commandments from the Alabama Supreme Court’s courthouse, a monument he had had placed there himself.
That was 2003.
Moore, who has said the First Amendment applies only to Christians, ran for his old office and won back his seat as Chief Justice in 2012. During that campaign, Moore claimed same-sex marriage will be “the ultimate destruction of our country.â€
Recently, Moore has issued statements against a federal judge’s rulings in two same-sex marriage cases, even labeling the decisions “tyranny!” Earlier this year, Moore proclaimed same-sex marriage exists to destroy the foundation of America.
He contends, incorrectly, that the State of Alabama, and its judges, are not subject to a federal judge’s rulings.
Justice Moore also has now instructed his probate judges, who are responsible for issuing marriage licenses, to not issue licenses to same-sex couples.
Last week, the Southern Poverty Law Center filed an ethics complaint against Justice Moore.
Today, echoing that complaint, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) called for Moore’s firing.
“Chief Justice Roy Moore is lawlessly disregarding the binding ruling of a federal judge, and he’s encouraging other statewide officeholders to do the same,†said HRC Legal Director Sarah Warbelow in a statement. “Moore’s personal opinions are not at issue here. As a lawyer and as a judge, he has an obligation to follow the law. If he refuses to do so, he should be removed from office.â€
Buzzfeed’s Chris Geidner reports “An HRC spokesperson told BuzzFeed News this is the first time the organization has called for the removal of a judge and, so far as anyone can recall, the first time the organization has ever called for the removal of any elected official.”
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