Trial ends for Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore; judges have 10 days for verdict

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Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore
Photo Credit: Getty Images/Matthew Cavanaugh

The chief judge on an Alabama disciplinary panel says they’ll decide “as soon as possible” whether to remove Chief Justice Roy Moore from office.

The nine-member Court of the Judiciary has concluded its hearing on allegations that Moore intentionally misused his office to try to block gay couples from marrying in Alabama.

Chief Judge Michael Joiner said he did not anticipate a decision would come Wednesday.

The charges involve an administrative order Moore sent six months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that gays can marry in every U.S. state. Moore told probate judges that because the Alabama Supreme Court had not rescinded the state’s gay marriage ban, they still remained bound by it.

Moore’s lawyer, Mat Staver, told the court that Moore’s order was merely a “status report” that “did not order them to disobey anything.”

Moore was removed from office in 2003 for disobeying a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state judicial building.

Attorney John Carroll, representing the judicial commission seeking Moore’s removal, said “we are here 13 years later because the Chief Justice learned nothing from that first removal. He continues to defy law.”

Republished with permission of the Associated Press.

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