Alabama’s chief justice warns us that same-sex marriage “will be the ultimate destruction of our country.” Yes, these are the actual words of Alabama’s ?highest-ranking legal authority in 2015.
Last week, Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore threw the state into confusion after ordering state officials not to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples — a move contradicting a federal court’s ruling that Alabama’s ban on same-sex ?marriage is unconstitutional.
Alabama has long been known for its stubborn insistence to preserve archaic legal structures, but this move is surprisingly backwards. While the issue will ultimately be left up to the Supreme Court, and a federal court has issued an order reasserting state officials’ responsibility to uphold federal law, Moore’s words indicate he isn’t backing down.
In an interview with NPR, Moore stated that “(the Supreme Court) can mandate same-sex marriage, but they can’t force a constitutional officer to disobey his oath by performing one.”
This would make sense if it weren’t for this tricky thing called the American judicial system. What Moore doesn’t understand is that ever since the Civil War, Alabama must obey the supremacy of federal law. It has been well established by the courts that the Due Process and Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment mandates state constitutions abide by the federal one.
Justice Moore is stuck in the 1850s and in the eyes of the Editorial Board, that alone should be enough to cost Moore his seat on the bench. It has already happened once, when he ignored a federal order to remove a 5,300-pound granite monument of the Ten Commandments from the judicial building and was removed as chief justice.
However, because Alabama has made the absurd rule that their State Supreme Court justices are elected by the people and not appointed, Moore fought his way back to his old job. There’s no guarantee a state like Alabama wouldn’t still end up making news for trying to oppress people they view as inferior, but politicizing the courts all but guarantees they will.
There is a reason why the Supreme Court is appointed and not elected — it’s difficult to objectively uphold the rule of law when politics is involved and voters scrutinize your every move.
Even with judges appointed for life terms at the federal level, we have one of the most activist Supreme Courts in history, with decisions regularly made by party-line votes. Adding elections only amplifies such a problem.
Alabama will never be a beacon for progressive social policy, but to prevent chaos and minimize injustice, Roy Moore needs to be removed from the bench, and their Supreme Court needs to be reformed. Otherwise, what we view as confederate nonsense will ?continue to be law in the South.
