Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore on Wednesday accused several groups, including the Southern Poverty Law Center and "atheists, homosexuals and transgender individuals" of bringing a politically motivated complaint about his administrative order to probate judges not to issue same-sex marriage licenses gay marriage to the Judicial Inquiry Commission of Alabama.

The JIC, which could determine whether Moore is brought up on ethics charges, is the wrong venue to bring the complaint, according to the chief justice and his attorney, Mat Staver. They said the SPLC, Human Rights Campaign and other groups should bring the complaint instead to the U.S. Supreme Court.

After the U.S. Supreme Court's 2015 ruling that made same-sex marriage legal in America, Moore ordered the state's probate justices not to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. Moore maintained that the Supreme Court ruling had no bearing on Alabama's constitutional ban on gay marriage.

"This is not about religion," Moore said at the press conference. "This is about my marriage and my legal orders."

Asked why he called the press conference, Staver said he was not anticipating an immediate ruling by the JIC, but wanted to clear up what he believed were mischaracterizations. Moore said his orders to probate judges never instructed them to defy a federal order.

Moore said the complaint to the JIC, which was filed in January, was politically motivated. He referred to one of the complainants, Ambrosia Starling, as being a "transvestite" who illegally performed a mock same-sex marriage ceremony in the state. Moore then referred to "transexuality" as being a "mental disorder" until 2013, when a diagnostic manual used by the medical community replaced gender identity disorder in the handbook.