Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore

Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore discusses the U.S. Supreme Court's same-sex marriage ruling Monday, June 29, 2015, in Montgomery, Ala. (Julie Bennett/jbennett@al.com)

(JULIE BENNETT)

I'm sure Win Johnson thought he was doing the right thing.

A lawyer in the Alabama Administrative Office of Courts, who answers to Chief Justice Roy Moore, Johnson wrote a blistering letter directed at public officials on the fence about same-sex marriage.

"Public officials are ministers of God assigned the duty of punishing the wicked and protecting the righteous," he wrote. "You cannot serve two masters: you must pick -- God or Satan."

However, while Johnson's letter seems aimed at public officials, he seems only to have directed it at one -- Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley. After the United States Supreme Court ruled last week that same-sex marriage is a right protected by the Constitution, Bentley lamented that he disagreed with the decision but he said the state must follow the law as the high court interprets it.

"We can express our disagreements verbally as I have," Bentley said Friday. "But I have to uphold not only the constitution of Alabama, but I swore to uphold the Constitution of the United States and we will uphold the law of the United States. I will uphold the law of the nation and this is now the law."

To that line of thinking, Johnson's letter spouts the reactionary hyperbole of a talk-radio caller on a meth binge.

"'I must follow the law,' you say. Law? What law?" Johnson wrote. "There is no law anymore, there's just opinion. One day this, one day that. When the law becomes merely the opinion of a handful of people on the courts, there is no longer any law. There is tyranny. There is chaos. But there is no law."

Win Johnson

Johnson's letter made its way into the public debate after AL.com reporter Chuck Dean asked him about it Tuesday. He had not meant to direct the letter specifically at Bentley, he said, but when Dean asked him to what other officials he had sent the letter, he couldn't recall any.

The Southern Poverty Law Center called for Johnson's resignation, and by Tuesday, Johnson had sent another letter to the governor's office apologizing for it.

"Chief Justice Moore has reprimanded me for sending it," Johnson wrote. "Again, the chief justice had nothing to do with the writing or my sending it and learned about it today for the first time."

But here's the thing. Why should Johnson have thought he was doing anything wrong.

Sure, he's a public official who is supposed to remain ostensibly impartial on matters such as this, at least in public.

But so is his boss.

And yes, maybe he shouldn't have put the governor on the spot like that.

But hasn't his boss done the same thing before?

In fact, Alabama's chief justice has been so outspoken in his opposition to same-sex marriage, that he has had to recuse himself from the recent related matters before the Alabama Supreme Court. In short, Moore's public outcry has gotten in the way of his public payroll job.

Moore can breathe fire just as hot as his minion, having predicted same-sex would lead to "the ultimate downfall of America."

And Moore hasn't been afraid either to put Bentley on the spot.

"I ask you to continue to uphold and support the Alabama Constitution with respect to marriage, both for the welfare of this state and for our posterity," Moore wrote in a letter to Bentley in January after United States District Judge Callie "Ginny" Granade ruled in favor of same-sex marriage rights in Alabama. "Be advised that I stand with you to stop judicial tyranny and any unlawful opinions issued without constitutional authority."

Why should Johnson have thought he was doing anything wrong when he was merely imitating the behavior of his boss?

The same boss who reprimanded him.

Whether Moore realized it or not, he wasn't condemning Johnson's behavior, but rather his own.