Roy Moore Now Says He Misspoke On Claim Same-Sex Marriage Still Banned

Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore backtracks, but his mission was accomplished.

It was Mission Accomplished over at the Alabama Supreme Court House today, at least as far as Roy Moore is concerned. The Chief Justice successfully sowed confusion and frustration into the same-sex marriage issue, skillfully delivering an opinion to a local news outlet that was reported as no same-sex marriage license can be issued in the Heart of Dixie for the next 25 days.

“It’s not in effect until after this hearing in this 25 day period,” Moore told AL.com, referring to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that finds states cannot ban same-sex marriage.

WATCH: Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore Claims Supreme Court Same-Sex Marriage Ruling Not In Effect

Legal experts were quick to weigh in and object to Moore’s claim. HRC insisted that probate judges immediately begin to or continue to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. 

News reports exploded, including from NCRM, that Alabama has halted marriage for same-sex couples for 25 days. As the news evolved and experts weighed in, NCRM issued four updates on the story, and adding a “Maybe” to the title:

LOOK: UPDATE IV: Alabama Supreme Court Halts All Same-Sex Marriages, Maybe

But after the news reports explosion, Moore decided to backtrack.

Heres the latest update from AL.com:

At first today, Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore said a state supreme court order effectively kept probate judges from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples for 25 days.

Moore, however, later backtracked.

“What the order means is that within that 25-day period no (probate judge) has to issue a marriage license to a same sex couple,” Moore said.

Moore said that if he implied that the order prohibited the issuing of marriage license to same-sex couples then he misspoke. 

Chris Geidner at Buzzfeed was among the first to throw water on Moore’s claim, and AL.com’s reporting. A few tweets:

Will all probate judges in Alabama issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples tomorrow? We’ll see.

But for now, as he has done before, Chief Judge Roy Moore effectively added confusion and frustration into the legal mix, instead of properly interpreting and explaining the law. Again.